[IlicioÍdes Dumont. Bot. Cult. 4: 127. pl. 4. Hyponym. 1802.] A glabrous shrub, with slender-petioled oblong deciduous leaves, and polygamo-dioecious axillary small flowers. Calyx of the staminate flowers none, that of the pistillate minute, 4-5-toothed. Petals 4 or 5, distinct, linear. Stamens 4 or 5, free from the corolla; anthers ovoid-globose. Ovary 3-5-lobed, 3-5-celled; ovules 1 in each cavity; stigmas 3-5, sessile. Drupe subglobose. Nutlets 4 or 5. [Greek, referring to the slender pedicels.] A monotypic genus of eastern North America.

1. Nemopanthus Mucronàta (L.) Trelease. Wild Or Mountain Holly

Fig. 2796

Vaccinium mucronatum L. Sp. Pl. 350. 1753.

Nemopanthus fascicularis Raf. Journ. Phys. 89: 97. 1819.

N. canadensis DC. Mem. Soc. Gen. 1: 450. 1821.

Nemopanthes mucronata Trelease, Trans. Acad. St. Louis 5: 349. 1889.

Ilicioides mucronata Britton, Mem. Torr. Club 5: 217. 1894.

A shrub, 6°-15° high, with ash-colored bark. Leaves elliptic or obovate, ¥-2' long, acutish or mucronate at the apex, obtuse or acute at the base, entire or with a few small teeth; petioles 3"-6" long; flowers of both kinds solitary, or the staminate sometimes 2-4 together; pedicels very slender, often 1 1/2' long; drupe red, 3"-4" in diameter; nutlets faintly ribbed.

In swamps, Newfoundland to western Ontario, south to Wisconsin, Indiana and Virginia. Cat-berry. Brick-timber. May.