G 
GALLBERRY (Ilex glabra). —Inkberry. 
Evergreen winterberry. An evergreen 
shrub, 2 to 6 feet tall, with oval or elliptic 
leathery leaves, smooth, shining, deep green 
above, and paler and dull beneath. The 
diffusely branched bushes form dense thick¬ 
ets which withstand the encroachments of 
all other plant growths, and can be passed 
thru with difficulty. The gallberry multi¬ 
plies both by offshoots and by seed, and in 
the southeastern States is rapidly extend¬ 
ing over land which has been recently 
cleared from forest. 
The blooming period lasts for about a 
month beginning with May and closing 
early in June. The small flowers, in a mul¬ 
titude of little clusters, are produced in 
the greatest profusion, and 3000 have been 
counted on a bush with a stem only half 
an inch in diameter. Innumerable sprays 
of white bloom, variegated with green 
leaves, toss and wave in the wind like a 
great foam-crested sea. The flowers are 
largely dioecious, i. e., a part of the bushes 
chiefly staminate and a part mostly pistil¬ 
late flowers; and they are, therefore, de¬ 
pendent on insects for pollination. The 
sterile flowers are in clusters of 3 to 6, 
while the fertile are solitary. The bushes 
begin to bloom the second year. The ber¬ 
ries (drupes) are shining black, and are 
sometimes used for dyeing wool or in 
making a substitute for ink, whence the 
name inkberry. They are also called win¬ 
terberry because they remain on the 
bushes in great numbers during the win¬ 
ter and afford a never-failing food supply 
for birds. Ripe fruit can be found on the 
bushes every month in the year. In the 
spring when they are in full bloom there 
still remain on the branches a part of the 
fruit of the previous year. As the name 
indicates the fruit is very bitter; but to 
some extent the gallberries are eaten by 
birds. 
The gallberry grows in sandy soil along 
or near the coast from eastern Massachu¬ 
setts to Florida and Louisiana. It is the 
most valuable honey plant in the south¬ 
eastern section of the United States, rival¬ 
ing or surpassing the gum trees in the 
amount of honey produced. It covers 
thousands of acres of the sour or acid soil 
of the Coastal Plain where sweet clover, 
white clover, and tobacco will not flourish. 
The limestone soils so necessary to the 
prosperity of the clovers are unfavorable 
to this shrub. Without it there would be 
an immense area of sour soils with no 
honey plant well adapted to the needs of 
bee culture. Upon the surplus secured 
from this species the South is largely de¬ 
pendent for a good table honey. In the 
swampland are found the gum trees, or 
tupelos, while on the higher ground grow 
the gallberry, blackberry, and huckleberry. 
Much of this land can never be drained or 
reclaimed, and will thus always remain in¬ 
viting territory to the beekeeper. So abun¬ 
dantly is the nectar produced that in south¬ 
eastern Georgia the little drops can be 
plainly seen glistening in the flowers. So 
much better and abundant is this source of 
nectar, that honeybees were observed by 
E. R. Root to actually desert the tupelos 
in the height of the honey flow and devote 
their attention wholly to the newly open¬ 
ing bloom of the gallberry. 
The gallberry first becomes important 
as a honey plant in the swamps around 
Norfolk in southeast Virginia where with 
the gum trees it seldom fails to yield a sur¬ 
plus. In Tidewater North Carolina, there 
is a vast area of low land comprising 
20,000 square miles, the eastern half of 
which is not more than 20 feet above sea 
level. Gallberry covers thousands of acres 
along the rivers and bays, blooming from 
May 10 to June 1 and yielding an excel¬ 
lent but rather thin honey, which is liable 
to ferment unless well ripened. 
The Coastal Plain is far superior to any 
other part of the State for beekeeping, and 
“there is practically,” writes the State Spe- 
