I. Aquifolium albo-marginata has ovate, nearly flat, spiny-serrate leaves, with a narrow silvery margin, and fruits freely.  I. Aquifolium fructu albo has white berries; in I. Aquifolium fructu luteo they are yellow and very abundantly produced; and in I. Aquifolium fructu nigro they are black.  I. Aquifolium handsworthensis has elliptic-oblong spiny leaves, with a creamy-white margin and marbled with gray.  Grafted trees bear berries in great profusion from the time they are only a foot high, and are highly ornamental.  I. Aquifolium Hodginsii has large, broadly oblong-ovate, slightly spiny leaves, and large crimson-red berries that ripen late in autumn.  I. Aquifolium Hodginsii aurea is a sub-variety with a broad golden margin to the leaves, and the disc splashed with gray.  Beautiful and distinct is I. Aquifolium Lawsoniana, with ovate, flat, almost spineless leaves, heavily and irregularly blotched with yellow in the centre.  The berries are of a brilliant red.  The variety differs from Milkmaid in having flat, nearly entire leaves.  I. Aquifolium pendula has a wide, rounded, drooping head, but otherwise does not differ from the type.  Many others bear berries, but the above are all very distinct forms.

I. OPACA.—­American Holly.  United States, 1744.  The leaves of this species are oblong or oval, small, spiny-serrate, and of a dark opaque green.  The berries, which ripen in autumn, are small, bright red, and very liable to be eaten by birds.  In America this Holly is put to precisely the same purposes as the common Holly is in Europe.  It is perfectly hardy here.

ILLICIUM.

ILLICIUM FLORIDANUM, from Florida (1771), is a beautiful but uncommon shrub, probably on account of its being tender and susceptible to injury by frost, unless in the warmer and more favoured parts of the country.  The fragrant flowers are of a purplish-rose, while the foliage is neat and of a pleasing green.

I. ANISATUM (syn I. religiosum), from China and Japan (1842), is too tender for outdoor culture in this country.

INDIGOFERA.

INIDGOFERA GERARDIANA (syns I. floribunda and I.  Dosua).—­India, 1842.  This forms a compact dwarf bush in the open, but is still better suited for covering a wall, the growth and floriferousness being then much increased.  The foliage is neat and Pea-green, while the bright pink Pea-like flowers are produced in long racemes.  It is a pretty bush, and grows freely enough in any good garden soil, but very fine flowering specimens may be seen in light, sandy soil of a peaty nature.  There is a white flowered variety named I. Gerardiana alba.

ITEA.

ITEA VIRGINICA.—­North America, 1744.  This is a neat, deciduous shrub of 3 feet or 4 feet in height.  The ovate-lanceolate leaves are of a light greyish-green, and the small white flowers are produced in dense racemes or spikes.  Planted in a somewhat shady place, and in rather cool, damp soil, this little shrub does well and flowers profusely.