XVI. 1. THE AMERICAN HOLLY. 341 
XVI. 1. THE HOLLY. IZEX. L. 
The hollies are evergreen shrubs or small trees, with leaves 
usually coriaceous, and often bordered with thorny teeth, and 
white, axillary flowers, commonly perfect, but often with the 
fertile and sterile on different plants. They are distinguished 
by their four-celled ovary, with four sessile stigmas, and their 
berry-like drupe, with four, one-seeded nuts. The hollies are 
found in North and tropical America, in the warmer parts of 
Asia, and a single species in central and northwestern Europe. 
Their wood is remarkable for its hardness, whiteness, and close- 
ness of grain, and for its susceptibility of receiving color and 
polish. There are about forty species in the genus. 
Tue American Hotty. Jf opdea. Aiton. 
Figured in Michaux, Sylva, Il, Plate 84. 
The American holly is a handsome, low tree, with nearly 
horizontal branches, and thorny, evergreen leaves. ‘he erect 
trunk is clothed with a smooth bark, of an ashy gray, resemb- 
ling that of the beech, but somewhat lighter. On the older trees, 
it is usually overspread with grayish parmelias and lecanoras, 
and other bluish, whitish, and gray lichens. ‘The recent shoots 
are of a yellowish or olive gray, with a slight, downy powder, 
afterwards becoming of a clear gray. It is found growing in 
company with the red maple, the tupelo, the yellow birch, the 
black oak, and the cedar. 
Leaves on short footstalks, evergreen, oval-oblong or elliptic, 
acute at both ends or somewhat angled at base, with several 
large teeth ending in stiff spines, leathery, smooth and shining 
above, paler or greenish yellow, with bright green veins, beneath. 
At their base, when recent, a pair of awl-shaped, brown sti- 
pules may be seen. 
The perfect or fertile flowers are solitary, at the base of the 
recent shoots, on stems half an inch long, beneath the base of 
which are a lanceolate, membranous, brown, fugacious scale, 
and two minute, pointed, more permanent ones at its sides; and 
above the middle are two appressed, minute, pointed, green 
