Including Prinos
ORD. Ilicineoe. A genus comprising 145 species of mostly hardy shrubs or trees, inhabiting temperate and tropical regions, abundant in South America, rare in Africa and Australia. Flowers white, often sub-dioecious; peduncles axillary, few-flowered, or often ramose. Drupe globose. Leaves alternate, often shining, entire, dentate or spinose. The common Holly, with its innumerable varieties, is well known and extensively cultivated. It submits to training in almost any shape, and soon recovers if severly pruned to preserve the desired character in this respect. Pruning or cutting should be practised either in September or April, both in the case of trained trees and the clipping of hedges. The Holly may be best transplanted at the beginning of May, or early in autumn, when there is sufficient time for new roots to be formed before winter. It does not transplant well when old, but is a long-lived tree when established in good soil and left undisturbed at the root. One of the handsomest and most endurable hedges which can be grown is made from this plant. It is slow-growing, taking eight or ten years from seed to make a fence 4ft. high; consequently, it is less extensively employed than it would otherwise be. It is not unusual to allow a long stem to run up, and form a tree at intervals along a Holly hedge. The red berries, contrasting with the dark green foliage throughout the winter, have a very pleasing appearance, and the branches are in great request for Christmas decorations. Propagation is usually effected by seeds, which require treatment similar to those of the Hawthorn, being collected when ripe in the autumn, and buried in sand until the following spring or autumn, when they may be sown in drills or beds and covered with 1in. of soil. A few boughs, placed over the beds, will be very serviceable as a protection against frosts or the heat of the sun, which latter is injurious to the young Hollies. The plants may remain in the seed-beds for two years, and can then be transferred into nursery rows 1ft. apart. After being transplanted, they must stand for two years at least, when they will require to be again, removed, to give them more space. The plants will then be about 1 1/4ft. or 1 1/2ft. high. The varieties can only be propagated by grafting, during March; and by budding, in May, with a pushing bud, or in August with a dormant one. Stocks for both purposes may be of the common sort, raised from seed. There are a number of varieties of far more horticultural value than the species. The variegated forms are particularly attractive.
I. Aquifolium (prickly-leaved).* Common Holly. fl. sub-umbel-late; peduncles axillary, short, and many-flowered. May and June. Berries red, roundish. l. ovate or oblong-acute, shining, waved, spiny-toothed. h. 10ft. to 40ft. Europe (Britain) and West Asia. From the bark of this, as well as some other species, birdlime is obtained.
I. Cassine (Cassine). fl. in clusters, nearly sessile, smooth. May. l. alternate, evergreen, lance-ovate or elliptical, crenate. South United States, 1726. Shrub. The leaves are used for tea by the people along the coast, as they formerly were to make the celebrated "Black Drink" of the North Carolina Indians.
I. chinensis (Chinese). fl., corymbs pedunculate, dichotomous. July. l. ovate-oblong; edge with little, cartilaginous, scarcely pungent teeth. h. 10ft. China, 1814. (B. M. 2043.) I. cornuta (horned).* Berries large. l. hard, dark green, almost always furnished with three strong spines at the end, which, in mature plants, assume the appearance of horns; when young, one or two more spines are added at each side, but these disappear in old plants. North China, 1850. A fine hardy Holly. (G. C. 1850, p. 311.) I. crenata (crenated).* fl., peduncles drooping, scattered on the branches, usually three-flowered. Spring. l. ovate, crenate, blunt, with revolute edges.