S38 ILE 
roots of the numerous trees which are there planted. All 
thefe efforts were crowned with fuccefs. In the orchards, 
kitchen-gardens, and parterres, there are but few flovPers, 
cipaliers, or plants, which do not thrive; but the trees, 
naturally of a lofty growth, and which consequently muft 
ftrike their roots deep into the earth, already prove the 
insufficiency of art when it attempts to ftruggle againlt 
nature. Many of them Ianguifh with withered trunks, 
and with difficulty keep life in their almoft naked branches. 
Every year it is neceffary to call in the aid of gunpowder 
to make new beds for thofe which are to Supply their 
place ; and none of them are covered with that tufted fo¬ 
liage which belongs only to thofe that grow’ in a natural 
foil. In a word, there are in the groves of St. Ildefonfo, 
marble llatues, bafons, cafcades, limpid waters, verdure, 
and delightful profpe&s, every thing but that which would 
be more charming than all the reft, thick fhades. 
The court of Spain comes hither annually during the 
heat of the dog-days. It arrives towards the end,of July, 
and returns at the beginning of Oftober. The f.tuation 
of St. Ildefonfo, upon the declivity of the mountains 
which Separate the two Caftifes, and fronting a vaft plain 
where there is no obftacle to the paffage of the north wind, 
renders this abode delightful in Summer; the mornings 
and evenings of the hotteft days are cool and refrefhing. 
IL'DEFONSO, a town of North America, in the go¬ 
vernment of Mexico, and province of Guaxaca : fifteen 
leagues eaft-fouth-eaft of Guaxaca. 
IL'DEFONSO’s ISLANDS, a cl lifter of iflands near the 
fouth coaft of Terra del Fuego. Lat. 21.50, S. Ion. 69. 
ai. W. Greenwich. 
ILDIN'SKOI, a cape of Ruflia, in the Pacific Ocean, 
near the northern part of Kamtchatka. Lat. 59.15. N. 
Ion. 182. E. Ferro. 
ILE,/. [corrupted from aijlc, Fr. a wing.] A v'alk or 
alley in a church or public building. Properly aile: 
Upward the columns fhoot, the roofs afcend, 
And arches widen, and long ties extend. Pope. 
An ear of corn. Ainfworih. 
ILE, f. [from EiXso;, Gr. an involution.] In anatomy, 
the cavity from the cheft to the thigh-bones. Scott. 
ILE, a river of England, in the county of Somerfet-, 
which runs into the Parret about a mile fouth from 
Langport. 
ILEHAR'RE, a town of France, in the department of 
ihe Lower Pyrennees, near Mauleon. 
ILEIG'NES, or St. Charles, a town on the fouth 
fide of the iftand of St. Domingo, near the city of St. Do¬ 
mingo. It is inhabited by emigrants from the Canary 
Iflands, and has a few ftreets which run from the four 
cardinal points, and cut each other at right angles. The 
inhabitants are the moft induftrious people in the Spanifh 
part of the ifland. 
I'LEK, a river of Ruflia, which runs into the Ural at 
iort Iletzkaia. 
I'LEN, a river of Wales, in the county of Pembroke, 
which runs into the fea a little to the fouth of St. David’s. 
ILER'DA, in ancient geography, the capital of the Ili- 
gertes; fttuated on an eminence between the rivers Sico- 
ris and Singa : an unhappy city, often befieged, and of¬ 
ten taken, becaufe lying expoled to the incurfions from 
Gaul; and under Gallienus it was deftroyed by the Ger¬ 
mans. Now Lerida, in Catalonia, on the river Segra. 
I'LET,/. [from z fie.] A little ifland. 
I'LET, a river of Ruflia, which runs into the Volga, 
forty miles north-weft of Kazan. 
I'LET-HOLE, /. [from ceilkt , Fr. a little eye, and hole.'] 
A hole wrought in a garment to receive a point; a kind 
of needlework. 
ILETER'TON, a town of Afia, in Thibet: thirty. 
miles fouth-weft of Cha-tcheou. 
ILETZKA'IA, a fort of Afiatic Ruflia, in the govern¬ 
ment of Upha, on the fouth fide of the Ural; feventy- 
iwo miles w eft of Orenburg, 
I L E 
.ILETZKAIAZATSCHPTA, a fort of Ruflia, on the 
river Iiek, in the government of Upha: forty miles fouth 
of Orenburg. 
IL'EUM, J. [from £(>.eo;, Gr. an involution.] In ana¬ 
tomy, the third of the lifi.aH inteftines, lo called from its 
various windings. 
ILE'US, / [Latin.] An ileus, commonly called the 
twilling of the guts, is really either a circumvolution or 
mfertion of one part of the gut within the other. Ar - 
buthnot. 
FLEX,/ Holly ; in botany, a genus of the clafs te- 
trandria, order tetragynia, (polygamia dioeeia, Hudf) na¬ 
tural order of dumofce, (rharnni, JuJf.) The generic cha- 
rafters are—Calyx : perianthium four-toothed, very fmalh 
permanent. Coroila: one-pecalled, four-parted, wheel- 
fhaped ; divilions roundifh, fpreading, rather large, with 
cohering claws. Stamina: filaments four, awl-fhaped* 
fhorter than the corolla ; antherse imall. Piitilium : gisriri 
roundifli; ftyle none; ftigmas four, obtufe. Pericar- 
pium: berry roundifh, four-celled. Seed: folitary, bony 
oblong, obtufe, gibboie on one fide, cornered on the other! 
—EJJential Charader. Calyx four-toothed 5 corolla wheel! 
fhaped ; ftyle none ; berry four-feeded. 
Species. 1. Ilex aquifoiium, or common holly: leaves- 
ovate, acute, fpiny, fhining, waved ; flowers axillary, f u b~ 
umbelled. The common holly rifes from twenty to thir¬ 
ty feet, and fofnetimes more. Bradley mentions' a tree 
fixty feet in height; ’but its ordinary height is not above 
twenty-five feet. The trunk is covered with a greyifh 
fmooth bark, and thofe trees which are not lopped or 
browzed by cattle, are commonly furnifhed with branches 
the greateit part of their length, and form a fort of cone. 
Leaves about three inches long, and one and a half broad ; 
of a lucid green on their upper furface, but pale on their 
under, having a ftrong midrib; the edges are indented 
and waved, with fharp thorns terminating each of the 
points, fome raifed upwards, others bent downwards - 
and, being very ftiff, the leaves are troublefome to han! 
die; thefe thorns are fixed into a ftrsng woody border 
which furrounds the leaf. When this tree grows natu¬ 
rally it has flat entire leaves, without thorns, only ending 
in a fharp point, mixed with the others, efpecially as it 
advances in age. Flowers in clutters from the bale of the 
petioles, on very fhort peduncles, each fuftaining five,, 
fix, or more, flowers, appearing in May; the corolla of a 
dirty white. They are lucceeded by roundifh berries 
turning to a beautiful fcarlet about Michaelmas, and con¬ 
tinuing the greater part of the winter. Seeds three or 
four. 
Mr. Miller fays, “in fome plants I have obferved the 
flowers are wholly male and produced no berries, in others 
female and hermaphrodite flowers, but upon fome laro-e 
old trees growing in Windfor foreft I have obferved all 
three upon the fame trees.” The late fir William Wafc- 
fon alfo made an obfervation of the fame fort. Gerard 
remarked hermaphrodite flowers with five petals on one 
tree, and male flowers with a four-parted petal and an 
abortive germ on another tree. Dr. Withering fays, that, 
he found the holly in flower fo late as the lecond week 
in June, and then all the Jlowers had four ltamens and four 
piitils. Haller alfo remarks, that in all the flowers which 
he had an opportunity of examining, the corolla had the 
fame ftrudlure. Mr. Hudfon, however, defcribes a five¬ 
toothed calyx and five-parted corolla in the hermaphro¬ 
dite, with rive ltamens, four ftigmas, and a four-feeded. 
berry ; in the male, a four-toothed calyx, a four-partad 
corolla, and four ltamens. But whether this be from his 
own obfervation, or founded only on Gerard’s, we are at 
a lofs to know. He has removed the holly from the clafs 
where Linnaeus and others have placed it into the clals 
polygamia dioeeia, where it fhould properly be found ac¬ 
cording to the obfervations given above. But it is very 
well remarked by Dr. Stokes, that, before it be removed to 
another clafs, it is proper to fhow, that the majority of 
the other fpecies are liable to fimilar fexual variations, 
ri In 
