DECEMBER, 1906 
any fruiting specimens in America. Herb- 
arium specimens show berries a quarter of 
an inch in diameter, and about three in a 
cluster. 
3. The foliage of the American holly 
(I. opaca) is not as dark and glossy as that 
of the two species just described, and the 
berries are borne on this year’s wood—not 
last year’s. ‘‘The fertile holly tree,” says 
Miss Greenlee, ‘“‘is a sharply pointed cone 
with branches drooping in graceful spray; 
the sterile tree spreads almost horizontal 
branches out stiffly into a broad, formal, 
rounded cone.” It attains an extreme height 
of fifty feet in the South. ‘The tallest trees 
that I know of in the North are the ones at 
Mount Kisco, N. Y. They are about ten 
feet high. 
FOUR SPINELESS TENDER EVERGREENS 
The next four, though red-berried and 
evergreen, can hardly be called hollies, since 
their leaves are not spiny. 
4. The broad-leaved ilex (J. latifolia) 
probably has the largest red berries of 
all (4 to % of an inch in diameter, and three 
to seven in a cluster). It also has the largest 
leaves (2x6 in.) and ought therefore to be 
tried from Georgia south, where it may prove 
to be one of the most imposing broad-leaved 
evergreens. ‘This tender Japanese tree might 
better have been called ‘‘longifolia.” The 
only specimen I have seen has light green 
foliage. 
5. The Californians have no native holly. 
Their ‘‘Christmas berry” is a native shrub 
of the rose family, Photinia arbutifolia also 
known as toyon or tollon. The berries are 
only } in. in diameter, but the clusters often 
contain 100 berries, and are probably the 
largest of any red-fruited plant. When these 
are set off in winter by the shining, serrate 
leaves, the toyon is, according to Prof. 
Sargent, ‘‘perhaps more beautiful than any 
other North American tree.” It grows wild 
Pp nna _ - = ~ ise | : 
The inKberry (Ilex glabra), slow-growing, hardy ever- 
green native shrub with black berries 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
as far north as Mendocino county, especially 
on the northern slopes of dry hills, and it 
withstands ocean gales. It blossoms from 
June to August, and has small, whitish flowers 
in panicles four to six inches across. The 
berries are mealy, astringent, acid; ripen in 
November and stay on till late winter; and 
are more or less hidden by the foliage. The 
tree sometimes attains thirty feet. It ought 
to be commonly cultivated in California 
and the South, but is practically unknown, 
though it rarely appears in catalogues as 
Heteromeles or Crategus arbutifolia. Photinia 
fruits have one or two seeds. Ilex berries 
have four stones. Photinia flowers have 
five petals, Ilex usually four. The hardiest 
Photinia is the deciduous P. villosa, which 
does well at Boston. 
6. Thecassena berry, known to everyone 
from Virginia south, is Ilex vomitoria. 
Miss Rogers, in the “Tree Book,” tells us 
that the Indians made their nauseating ‘black 
_ 
| 
The large-leaved winterberry (Jlex monticola) has the 
largest berries (% inch). American mountain species 
drink” by boiling the leaves. The whole tribe 
drank it persistently for several days every year 
in the belief that the whole system was cleansed 
by the process. Another name for it is 
yaupon. These berries ripen in late autumn 
and sometimes stay on until the spring 
growth begins. Last March I saw young 
bushes choking the woodside ditches in 
South Carolina, and also a grand specimen 
at Magnolia Gardens loaded with thousands 
of berries. 
7. Unfortunately, the plant to which 
Linneus gave the name Jlex Cassine is not 
the cassena, but the dahoon. The berries 
of the dahoon are duller, but are rather more 
conspicuous because borne on this year’s 
wood. The leaf of the dahoon is only one 
or two inches long, and has crenate margins; 
the cassena leaf is twice as long and usually 
entire. Both are shrubs, rarely trees twenty- 
five feet high, with berries } in. in diameter, 
that are used in the South for Christmas 
decoration. They are so common that few 
people cultivate them and no nurseryman cat- 
EET 
The black alder (Ilex verticillata) the common red 
winter berry of swamps. Leafless in winter 
alogues them. The cassena is the commoner, 
and is never found far away from salt water. 
‘The dahoon is never common on the seacoast, 
but is found on the borders of cold swamps 
in rich, damp soil. Near the Gulf it grows 
on the high, sandy banks of pine barren 
streams. 
Il. The Red-berried Deciduous 
Species 
The deciduous species are less beautiful 
in winter because they have no foliage then, 
but they are easy to transplant, and will 
thrive in the open sunshine in ordinary soils, 
even when natives of wet woods. 
8. It is a pity that the botanies give the. 
name ‘‘mountain holly” to Nemopanthes 
fascicularis, because Ilex monticola means 
that. The name ‘‘Nemopanthes” refers 
to the stalks of the berries, which are much 
longer.than those of any holly (1 inch long). 
The berries are dull, light red, { in. long, 
borne singly, ripen in August and drop about 
the middle of September. 
Tamsorry to have misled some writers by 
saying, in the ‘‘Cyclopedia of American 
Horticulture,” that the berries are pendulous. 
They are erect. J must confess that I have 
never seen this plant. It grows in sphagnum 
bogs in the Appalachian mountains, from 
Maine to Virginia. It is said to thrive in 
cultivation, attaining a height of ten feet. 
I propose that we call it the ‘“long-stalked 
winterberry.”’ 
g. The large-leaved winterberry (Jlex 
monticola) has the largest berries and largest 
leaves of all the deciduous species worth 
growing. ‘The berries are half an inch in 
diameter, but not abundant, and they drop 
after Christmas. This is our mountain- 
loving Ilex. In the Catskills it is a tall shrub; 
in North Carolina a tree forty feet high. The 
leaves are often five or six inches long. ‘“‘It 
is too shaggy to give general satisfaction,” 
says Mr. J. Woodward Manning. 
