270 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



Our Christmas Greens 

 Beatrix Farrand 



It is probable that few people realize how much widespread 

 destruction our cheerful demand for Christmas greens entails; 

 our Holly wreathes and Laurel and Ground-pine roping have 

 meant corresponding losses to our woodlands. We are most of 

 us to blame through ignorance because we do not know that one 

 thin and poor yard of Laurel-roping uses up at least twenty 

 growths of one year each, and that over thirty are needed to 

 make the pretty thick strands we all have liked to buy. A good 

 wreath of Holly is made up of fully thirty or forty of the finest 

 young berried twigs of an average of two years growth. The 

 cases of Holly sold in all the large florists' shops and markets 

 at Christmas time measure approximately three feet long and 

 two feet wide and at least two feet high; each of these boxes 

 contain a minimum of six hundred years of growth. It is there- 

 fore not difficult to understand why Holly has been practically 

 exterminated from the state of Connecticut and is growing difficult 

 to find in New Jersey and nearby states. 



The young sprouts of the Southern long-leaved Pine are also 

 much used at Christmas and any of us who have tried to nurse 

 an Evergreen back to shapeliness, which has lost its leader, 

 knows what the loss of the principal growth means to a young 

 conifer. Abies balsamea, the Northern fir, does not seem to be un- 

 desirable to use for our Christmas trees. It is beautiful in youth 

 but short-lived and of little commercial value and is only fit 

 for Christmas trees when grown in the open, as it rapidly loses 

 its lower branches in the forest. 



Our churches in the East use large quantities of Christmas 

 egrens and occasionally one sees a shop, theatre or concert hall 

 gaily wreathed with Laurel, Pine or Hemlock. The business of 

 collecting these greens is growing 'each year; many country land- 

 owners are selling the right to get these materials and small 

 armies of collectors come and cut and cart away cases and bales 

 to supply our demands for decoration. We can each of us do 

 our part toward decreasing the demand which has produced this 

 reckless supply. It is going to be hard to find substitutes, but 

 the Christmas destruction in our woodlands will largely cease if 



