98 THE HOLLY FAMILY. [Llex. 
XXII. AQUIFOLIACER. THE HOLLY FAMILY. 
A small Order, widely spread over the globe, limited in 
Britain to a single genus, from which the few exotic ones 
differ slightly in the number of parts of the flower and fruit. 
They nearly all approach Celastracew, but have the petals — 
usually very shortly united into a monopetalous corolla, and 
the stamens inserted on its base, without any fleshy disk round 
the ovary. 
I. ILEX. HOLLY. 
Shrubs or trees, with alternate leaves, and small flowers in axillary 
clusters. Calyx of 4 or rarely 5 small teeth. Corolla regular, deeply 
divided into as many segments or petals. Stamens as many, inserted on 
the corolla, and alternating with its segments. Ovary sessile, 4-celled, 
with one pendulous ovule in each cell, and crowned by 4 minute sessile 
stigmas. Fruita berry, or rather a small drupe, including 4 stones or nuts, 
each containing a single seed. 
The species are numerous in the warmer parts of the northern hem1- 
sphere, as well as in the tropics, but reduced to very few in the more tem- 
perate regions. 
1, X. Aquifelium, Linn. (fig. 222). Common Holly.—An erect, much 
branched evergreen shrub or bushy tree; the leaves shortly stalked, ovate, 
thick and shining, some quite entire, others much waved, and bordered with 
strong, very prickly, coarse teeth. Flowers white, in dense clusters in the 
axils of the leaves, often unisexual. Berries bright red or yellow. 
Common in hedges and woods in western and southern Europe, extending 
to the Caucasus, but will not bear the winters of north-eastern Europe or 
northern Asia. Found all over Britain. Fl. summer. 
XXIII. CELASTRACEA, THE CELASTRUS FAMILY. 
A rather numerous family, in warm climates of both the 
new and the old world, and in the southern hemisphere, but 
confined in Britain to the single genus Hvonymus. The exotic 
genera associated with it differ chiefly in the shape of the parts 
or the flowers, or in the various forms the fruit assumesas itripens. 
I. EVONYMOS. SPINDUE-TREE. 
Shrub, with opposite, undivided leaves, and small, green or purplish, 
regular flowers, in loose, axillary cymes, Calyx small and flat, with 4 or 5 
broad, short lobes, overlapping each other in the bud. Petals as many, also 
overlapping each other. Stamens as many, alternating with the petals, and 
united with them on a slightly thickened disk, which covers the base of the 
calyx. Ovary immersed in the disk, with a very short, protruding style. 
Capsule with 4 (rarely 3 or 5) angles or lobes, enclosing as many cells, and 
opening, when ripe, inas many valves along the middle of each cell. Seeds 
solitary in each cell, enclosed in a coloured, fleshy arillus. Hmbryo in a 
fleshy albumen. . 
A genus widely diffused over Europe, Asia, and North America, and 
easily recognized by its fruit. 
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