see displayed in quick succession, or combined beauty, the snowy wreaths which mingle with the hawthorn's tender green, the fragrant tassels of the floating woodbine, the blushing clusters which festoon the hanging sprays of our wildling rose, the gaudy hues of the young shoots of oak or maple, the fragile bells of the fair and lovely bindweed, the roseate blossoms of the bramble's straggling shoots, the tangled tresses of the twisting brion, the luxuriant garlands of the graceful hop, the mantling masses of the starry clematis, or the gay flowers of the woody nightshade? Yet even amid all their varied, their surpassing beauties, often does the sated, glared eye, wearied even by the many charms which are spread before it, rest with relief and pleasure on the dark masses of holly which grow beneath, or interspersed among them; and which, though then half concealed by their more showy and luxuriant neighbours, possess intrinsic charms of which no change or seasons can divest them.

Hardy, though so ornamental, the holly is found indigenous in most parts of Europe, and many other countries in the north temperate zone; yet where does it attain to greater perfection, or is it found more generally, than in England and Scotland? In the latter country it was, and is still, in many places, particularly abundant. Sir T. D. Lauder mentions it as "growing in great abundance on the banks of the river Findhorn, where the trees rise to a very great size. So plentiful were they in the forest of Tarnawa, on its left bank, that for many years the castle of Tarnawa was supplied with no other fuel than billets of holly; and yet they are still so numerous, that in going through the woods now, no one would suppose that such destruction has been committed."

That the holly was equally abundant and widely diffused in England, is fully proved by the many places evidently deriving names from it; also by its universal prevalence in the remains of all our old aboriginal forests. Some of the finest now standing are in Needwood Forest, in Staffordshire, and in the New Forest.

The circumference of the stem and branches of the holly is small in proportion to that of many other trees: this may, in some degree, be accounted for by the peculiar slowness of its growth, and the consequent hardness of the timber, the annual deposits of woody layers being remarkably small and compact.

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The bark is smooth, and of a greyish tinge: the lower branches spread horizontally, and when the tree is uninjured by cattle, etc., diverge regularly on each side of the trunk, while the upper and the younger shoots assume a more elevated direction, so as to give the tree a conelike appearance. "The branches," to quote the minute description of Hunter, are garnished with oblong oval leaves about three inches long, and one and a half broad; of a lucid green on their upper surface, but pale on their under, having a strong midrib; the edges are indented and waved, with sharp thorns terminating each of the points, so that some of the thorns are raised upward, and others bent downward; these being very stiff, cannot be handled without pain. The leaves are placed alternate on every side of the branches, and from the base of their footstalks the flowers come out in clusters; standing on very short footstalks, each of these contain five, six, or more flowers." This curious formation of the prickly-bordered leaves is, we believe, peculiar to the varieties of this tree, and adds another to the countless instances around us, of the diversity and wise arrangement visible in all the works of Jehovah. By their instrumentality, the foliage, else so exposed to the attacks of cattle, from its low habit of growth, particularly to those of the sheep, which are especially fond of it, is secured, untouched, to minister to the pleasure of man, the delegated "great master of all;" and the tree is left uninjured to yield shelter and defence. Such, at least, would appear to be the design of the thorny leaves, as it has been correctly remarked, that where the tree is allowed to assume its natural form, the leaves on the lower branches alone are furnished with these prickles, whilst those on the upper boughs are, for the most part, destitute of them. And well has our laureate bard moralized on this curious, though little regarded fact in the allwise economy of nature.

O reader! hast thou ever stood to see
The holly tree?
The eye that contemplates it well perceives
Its glossy leaves,

Ordered by an intelligence so wise,
As might confound the atheist's sophistries.

Below a circling fence its leaves are seen,
Wrinkled and keen;
No grazing cattle, through their prickly round,
Can reach to wound;

But as they grow where nothing is to fear,
Smooth and unarm'd the pointless leaves appear,

Gilpin speaks of the holly rather as a bush or shrub, than a tree, though he admits it to be "a plant of singular beauty." The situation in which it is most naturally found, is as undergrowth in forests of oak, elm, ash, and pine; and in such scenes, being overtopped and shaded by its larger compeers, it certainly rather assumes the character of one of "those humble plants, which filling up the interstices, mass and connect the whole." Yet, as we have observed, even in such spots, where circumstances have favoured its growth, many handsome specimens are found, and when allowed full scope in plantations, etc., it has attained no insignificant size. Pliny mentions a holly tree in Tusculum, the trunk of which measured thirty-five feet in circumference, and "which sent out ten branches of such magnitude, that each might pass for a tree."

The finest holly in England is supposed to be one at Claremont, which is eighty feet high: the diameter of the trunk two feet two inches, and of the head twenty-five feet. Many specimens are recorded, in various parts, from forty to fifty feet high.

Yet handsome as the holly may be as a tree, it is especially valuable as an hedge-row plant. For this purpose it is most generally cultivated and peculiarly adapted, whether we regard its great durability, the impenetrable nature of its foliage, the facility with which it bears

Nor is utility its sole recommendation. Evelyn speaks with enthusiasm of a hedge in his own garden at Sayes Court. "Is there under heaven a more glorious and refreshing object of the kind than an impregnable hedge of about four hundred feet in length, nine feet in height, and five in diameter, which I can show in my now ruined garden-thanks to the czar of Muscovy-at any time of the year, glittering with its armed and varnished leaves? The taller standards, at orderly distance, blushing with their natural coral. It mocks the rudest assaults of the weather, beasts, or hedgebreakers, and Et illum nemo me impunit lacessit." Of this hedge, the pride ofits worthy master, no trace now remains, though others, scarcely inferior to it, yet remain. Of these, those at Tyningham, near Dunbar, are probably the finest. These were planted in the beginning of the last century, and extend for two thousand nine hundred and fifty-two yards, varying from ten to twenty-five feet in height, and from nine to thirteen feet wide at the base; interspersed with single trees, from twenty to fifty feet high.

There are also one thousand one hundred and twenty feet of a similar hedge at Collinton, varying from fifteen to twenty-eight feet high. At that period hedges were very generally adopted, either as boundaries, or divisions in gardens; and the holly, from the ease with which it bears clipping, would harmonize well with the grotesque, or regular style then so fashionable in gardening. To such vegetable architecture Evelyn alludes, when he speaks of having seen

* Peter the Great, during his residence in England for the purpose of acquiring information in ship-building, navigation, etc., with a view to the benefit of his people, spent much time at Deptford. Whilst there he occupied Sayes Court, Evelyn's

favourite residence. In the grounds of this mansion was a handsome and valuable holly hedge, and through this, it is said, the Russian sovereign every morning amused and exercised himself by trundling a wheelbarrow!

"hedges, or if you will, stout walls of holly, twenty feet in height, kept upright; and the gilded sort budded low, and in two or three places, one above another, shorn and fashioned into columns and pilasters, architecturally shaped, and at due distance; than which nothing can possibly be more pleasant, the berry adorning the intercolumniations with scarlet festoons and encarpa."

The slow growth of the holly has been urged, by many, as more than counterbalancing its advantages as a suitable plant for hedgerows, yet the experience of many successful planters disproves the correctness of this general assertion. Evelyn tells us how he raised hedges, four feet high, in four years, and it would appear that, under a proper method of culture, holly fences may be raised in as short a time as those of hawthorn, privet, etc., which, in so many particulars, are vastly inferior; and "if," to quote again the language of our sylvan oracle, stay seven years for a tolerable quick, it is worth staying thrice seven for this, which has no competitor."

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A rich and deep loam is the soil, and a moist and sheltered, though not overshaded place, the situation in which the holly thrives best; yet it has this further recommendation, that there are but few spots in which it will not grow: even beneath the shade and drip of other trees, so uncongenial to almost every other plant, it is uninjured, and in this respect it is unequalled except by the box. The Sayes Court hedge is mentioned as planted on a burning gravel, exposed to the meridian sun; and Gilpin refers to the hollies growing at Dungeness" among the pebbles on the beach."

The timber of the holly is hard, white, finely grained, susceptible of a very high polish, and easily stained with different colours; hence it is peculiarly suited for inlaying, veneering, and other ornamental cabinet works. It is, however, scarce, and rarely to be obtained in any quantity, large trees being comparatively rare, or too much prized by their owners to be cut down for timber. The principal purposes to which it is at present applied, is as a substitute for ebony in the handles of metal tea-pots, in turnery-ware, and for inlaying ornamental cabinet-work. In former days, it was often substituted for the lime wood in carving; hence Spenser designates it

the carver Holme."

rank next after box and pear woods, for wood engravings. Of shoots and smaller branches, which are often cut in trimming hedges, the large and straight ones are used as whip-handles or walkingsticks, while the younger ones, and even the leaves, are given as fodder to cattle. The leaves, when dried and powdered, or boiled, are taken for some internal complaints; and a decoction of the bark is said to calm and relieve a cough. The berries are also used in medicine, though poisonous in their nature, at least to man, though their coral clusters form the principal winter store of many of our singing birds, and especially of the thrush. Yet from this tree, which thus conduces to the sustenance of the feathered race, is also derived one of their most destructive foes. The clammy substance known as birdlime, used by gardeners to attract birds, insects, etc., and too often perverted to more wanton purposes, is prepared from an infusion of holly bark.

"Alas, in vain with warmth and food,
You cheer the songsters of the wood!
The barbarous boy, from you, prepares
On treacherous twigs his viscous snares;
Yes, the poor birds you nursed, shall find
Destruction in your rifted rind."

Many varieties and sub-varieties have been raised by accident or cultivation from the holly. One of the earliest cultivators, Wrench, of Fulham, lived in the time of Charles II., and at that period these varieties were much in demand for varying the "trim parterre." Miller mentions thirty-one, and Loudon enumerates twenty-three distinct varieties, besides forty or fifty sub-varieties in the Hackney arboretum. Many of these are curious and beautiful, and it is especially observed of the variegation species of holly, that, unlike those of most other trees and shrubs, they present a healthy and uniform appearance. They are usually propagated by budding or grafting. The holly being so universally diffused over our continent, was well known to the ancient Greeks and Romans. By the former it was designated Agria, namely wild, or growing in the fields. Hence the Romans formed Agrifolium, though it was more commonly designated Aquifolium, in allusion to the prickly leaf, (Acutum, sharp, folium, leaf.) This name was retained by Linnæus, who prefixed to it that of Ilex, probably in allusion to its evergreen character. more popular name, holly, is evidently a corruption of the word holy, and applied

The

and in most European countries, associated with the sacred festival of Christmas. In

Turner's Herbal, published 1551, it is designated as "holy tree," and it is also spelled thus in a curious old ballad yet extant, bearing date, during the reign of Henry vi., in which it is contrasted with the ivy. The German, Danish, and Swedish names, Christdorn, Christorn, and Christtorn, doubtless have the same origin.

The custom of decorating churches and dwelling-houses with evergreens, during the season of Christmas, is of no common antiquity, though scarcely to be derived from the Jewish church, as some have supposed, from passages in Isaiah xli. and Ix. and Nehemiah viii. It would rather appear to have originated with the early Roman church, and to have been adopted by them, in consequence of a similar practice in the Saturnalian festivities, which occurred about the same period of the year. In corroboration of this idea, Bourne cites an edict of the second council of Bracara, A.D. 563, forbidding Christians "to deck their houses with bay leaves and green boughs at the same time with the Pagans," the Saturnalia commencing about a week earlier. During that season the ancient Romans were accustomed to send boughs of hollies, with the gifts presented by them, to their friends; and hence it was regarded by them as the emblem of peace and goodwill.

The nativity of our Saviour, in fact, occurred at a much earlier period of the year; but though the fact is too much overlooked, we have indisputable proof that it was the practice in the early church, to assimilate their festivals, etc., as closely as possible to those of the Pagans. They would, therefore, and with some show of reason, assign the celebration of an event, the source of joy and gladness alike to high and low, bond and free, master and servant, to a period at which, by common consent, those too often opposing interests were for a time blended, and mirth and rejoicing universally prevailed, the Saturnalian orgies, for the season, placing all ranks upon one common footing. How superior the joy which the true Christian derives from the birth of Christ to all worldly pleasures! Beside the manger in the Bethlehem stable, and in celebrating, as the poet (W. Scott) expresses it,

The blessed night,
Which to the cottage and the crown
Brought tidings of salvation down,

the "rich and the poor meet together,” as alike partaking, by faith, of the "common salvation," purchased and bestowed by Him who, "though he was rich, for our sakes became poor, that we, through his poverty, might be rich."

Stowe, in hisSurveye of London," tells us, that "against the feast of Christmas, every man's house, as also their parish churches, were decked with holme, ivy, bayes, and whatsoever the season of the year afforded to be greene; the conduits and standards in the street were likewise garnished." And though many of the observances and customs, wherewith the rude yet simple piety of our ancestors celebrated their Christmas season, have fallen into disuse, and in some cases, doubtless, the festival is more honoured in their omission than their performance,

though the carol and wassail song be silenced; the boar's head and the yule log are scarcely known but by tradition, and the mummings and the indiscriminating feast be confined to the most secluded of our districts, yet still the holly, and its kindred tribe of evergreens, retain their places, and discharge their wonted task in decorating the interior of our houses and churches.

Each house is swept the day before,
And windows stuck with evergreens,
The snow is besom'd from the door,
And comfort crowns the cottage scenes;
Gilt holly, with its thorny pricks,

And yew and box with berries small,
These deck the unused candlesticks,

And pictures hanging by the wall.

CLARE.

And fitly do the unwithering verdure and brilliant clusters of the holly, which speaks of hope and brightness, amidst the deep gloom of winter's saddest hours, the hedgerow borderer, and the ornament of the plantation, accessible to and valued alike by the peer and the peasant, adorn our walls and canopy our roofs to give honour to the anniversary of the celebration of the most important event earth ever knew: an event foretold by prophets, priests, and kings, waited for as the consolation of Israel, heralded by signs and wonders, announced by angelic messengers, and hymned by the angelic choir, "praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men."

Unfading in its glory, and impregnable to the blast, the holly enlivens our wintry walks, and gives brightness and gaiety to the scene, when a mantle of fleecy snow overspreads the ground, and the rustling