NAT. ORDER. 
DumoscR 
ILEX VOMITORIA. SOUTH SEA TEA, OR HOI.LY. 
Class IV. Tetrandria. Order III. Tetragynia. 
Gen. Char. Calyx, perianthium, four-toothed, very small, perma- 
nent. Corolla, one-petalled, four-parted, wheel-shaped, divi- 
sions roundish, spreading, rather large, with cohering claws. 
Stamens: Filaments, four, awl-shaped, shorter than the co- 
rolla. Anthers, small. Pistils and Germens, roundish. Style, 
none. Stigmas, four, obtuse. Pericarp : Berry, roundish, 
four-celled. Seed, solitary, bony, oblong, obtuse, gibbose and 
cornered. 
Spe. Char. Calyx, four-toothed. Corolla, wheel-shaped. Style, 
none. Berry, four-seeded. 
The leaves of the Ilex vomitoria are alternate, distant, oblong, 
bluntish, crenate-ferrate, and about the size, shape, texture and 
color of the small-leaved Alaternus, but somewhat shorter, and a 
little broader at the base; the jhwers are produced in close whorls 
at the joints of the branches, near the foot-stalks of the leaves ; 
they are white, and are succeeded by red berries, which continue 
upon the plants most part of the winter, and, being of a bright 
red color, they make a very beautiful appearance, intermixed with 
the green leaves. This tree usually rises from ten to fifteen feet 
in height. It is a native of West Florida. 
It has been supposed by the inhabitants of the South, that 
this shruh possesses poisonous properties ; and if we may judge 
^rora their continuing so long untouched by birds, in a country 
Vol. ii.— 115. 
