373 FLORA OF TEXAS. 



the filaments united into a 10-toothed tube, those opposite 

 the petals sterile, the 5 alternate ones shorter and bearing 

 a roundish 1-celled anther, which opens across the top ; 

 style short ; stigma 3-lobed ; capsule ovoid, 3-celled, locu- 

 licidally 3-valved ; seeds numerous, fixed to the central 

 placenta ; embryo straight, in fleshy albumen. — A smooth 

 perennial stemless herb, erect from a creeping scaly rhizo- 

 ma ; leaves all radical, evergreen, round-cordate, crenate, 

 petioled ; scape (l°-2° high) simple, bearing a long spiked 

 raceme of small \y\\\tQ flowers. 



TJiis order, with a?ie or two others not thus far found in 

 Texas, have been placed here to assist the student, because 

 they are ivell represented by the flora of the other Gulf 



States. 



71. HOLLY FAMILY. Order, Aquifoliace-E. 



Trees or shrubs, with alternate simple leaves, and small 

 white or greem^h. floivers ; caZya; 4-9-toothed; corolla hy- 

 pogynous, rotate, 4:-9-parted, imbricated in the bud ; sta- 

 mens 4-9, alternate with the lobes of the corolla, and in- 

 serted on its base; anthers opening lengthwise; ovary 

 free from the calyx, 4-9-celled ; stigma lobed, nearly ses- 

 sile ; drupe berry-like, composed of 4-9 one-seeded nutlets ; 

 seeds anatropous, suspended ; embryo minute, in fleshy al- 

 bumen. 



ILEX, L. Holly. 



Floivers perfect or dioeciously polygamous, of 4-9 parts ; 

 drujje containing 4-9 nutlets; leaves evergreen or decidu- 

 ous; fertile flowers commonly solitary on the young 

 branches, the sterile ones mostly in sessile or peduncled 

 clusters or cymes. 



Aquifolium. ParU of thefimoer 4 ; drupe red; nutlets ribbed or veiny on the 

 back ; leaves evergreen. 



I. OPACA, Ait. {Holly.) Smooth ; leaves oval, concave, 



