ILEX CORNUTA 
the Latin literally means horns, and 
from the upper corners of the unusual 
rectangular leaves emerge two promi- 
nent spines to give this shrub the name 
of ‘horned holly.” The leaf surface is 
exceptionally glossy and convex except 
at the rampant horns which causes the 
tip spine to be depressed downward 
and out of sight. Though somewhat 
sparse in fruiting habit, the berries of 
the Cornuta are exceptionally large, 
round, and of bright red color borne 
on nearly inch long stems. 
Var. BuRFoRD, F—A choice varietal 
form of Cornuta minus the horns. In 
other words, a nearly smooth oval 
leafed type with but a blunted tip and 
with convexly curved deeply veined 
leaves of highest polish. Growth is 
shrubby, rather pendulous and Burford 
can be depended upon to fill in and 
adapt itself admirably to a host of 
landscaping possibilities. A curious fea- 
ture of these feminine members of this 
Cornuta variety is their ability to pro- 
duce a profusion of fine red fruits in 
great long stemmed clusters and without 
benefit of pollination. It is one of the 
few hollies which is unconcerned about 
the fertility of her berries. Further- 
more, the fruits are exceptionally per- 
sistent so that we often have two sets 
of berries on the same shrub, the old 
28 
and the new, the one red, the other 
green or turning to orange. 
Var. RoruNDA. A Cornuta featured by 
a very long and horned leaf equipped 
with several depressed lateral spines 
and called Rotunda because of its 
dwarfish growth habit which shapes 
this shrub into a low hemispherical 
dome, intensely dense and compact. 
No fruits have been observed as yet 
on this variety. 
ILEX CORNUTA BURFORD 
ILEX CRENATA, Japan. Probably 
the most abundant and widely dis- 
tributed of all the Oriental hollies. It 
can be used successfully wherever the 
slower growing boxwoods are in order. 
Many seedling variations of this hardy 
species have been observed and numer- 
ous of them selected in turn for naming 
and propagation as garden varieties. 
One Crenata has been patented to 
provide for the legal licensing of com- 
mercial growers who choose to propa- 
gate and offer this variety for sale 
by name. 
As has been indicated, the leaves of 
Crenata like those of box are small and 
mostly spineless or at best but micro- 
scopically armed. Few of the unini- 
tiated recognize the delightful, compact 
and shrubby Crenatas as members of 
the holly family. They are even more 
