Aquifolium), more glossy and spiny of leaf and redder of berry
than our own, might live here; but it is too tender to withstand
New England winters, and the hot, dry summers farther south soon
prove fatal. Ilex was the ancient name, not of these plants, but
of the holly oak.
The MOUNTAIN HOLLY (Ilicioides mucronata - Nemopanthes Canadensis
of Gray) a shrub of the northern swamps, about six feet high, and
by no means confined to mountainous regions, since it is also
abundant in the middle West, has smooth-edged, elliptic, petioled
leaves, ash-colored bark, small, solitary, narrow-petalled
staminate and pistillate flowers on long, threadlike pedicels
from the leaf-axils in May. In August dull pale-red berries
appear. Darwin proved that seed set with the help of pollen
brought from distinct plants produces offspring that vanquishes
the offspring of seed set with pollen brought from another flower
on the same plant in the struggle for existence. Thus we see, in
very many ambitious plants besides those of the holly tribe, a
tendency to separate the male and the female flowers as widely as
possible.
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