HOLLY (Hex opaca, Ait.). 15 to 45 feet. A sturdy tree with narrow pyramidal head of short, slender limbs, and stout, twigs, pubescent at first with fine, red hairs. Bark gray, warty; on branches brown. Wood white, close-grained, tough, light, much used and valued in turnery and inlay work, for engravers' blocks, etc. Leaves simple, alternate, leathery, elliptical or obovate, 2 to 4 inches long, with wavy margins, the veins prolonged into sharp spines; evergreen, persistent for three years, falling in spring. Flowers dicecious, small,
white, in axillary, short-stalked cymes; staminate trees with more abundant bloom than pistillate. Fruit berry-like, red, rarely yellow, in late autumn; nutlets 4, ribbed. Dist.: Shady, moist woods, Maine to Florida, west to Missouri and Texas. Largest in Texas. Branches cut commercially for Christmas greens.