392 BRITISH EVERGREENS. 



Rome, for we find it was customary among the ancient Romans to send 

 boughs of Holly during the Saturnalia, as an emblem of good wishes, with 

 the gifts they presented to their friends. Bourne cites an edict of the counsel 

 of Bracara, canon 73, forbidding Christians to begin to decorate their houses 

 at Christinas with green boughs at the same time as the Pagans — the 

 Saturnalia commencing about a week before Christmas. (See Antiq: of the Con: 

 People, by Bourne, p. 173.) Again we find Dr. (Chandler, in his "Travels in 

 Greece, supposing this ancient custom derived from the Druids, who, he in- 

 forms us, decorated their dwelling-places with evergreens, ^'That the sylvan 

 spirit might repair to them, and remain unnipped with frosts and cold winds, 

 until a milder season had renewed the foliage of their darling abodes." The 

 earliest record of this custom in England is in a carol in the praise of the 

 Holly, in the reign of Henry VI., and preserved in the Hai-leian MS., No. 

 5396.— 



"Nay, Ivy, nay, it shall not be, I wys; 

 Let Holy hafe the maystry, as the maner ys; 

 Holly stond in the halle, fayre to behold 

 Ivy stood without the dore; she'ys full sore a cold. 



Holy and hys mery men they dawnsyn and they syng. 

 Ivy and hur Mayden3's they wepyn and they wryng. 

 Ivy hath a lybe, she laghtit with the cold. 

 So mot they all hafe that wyth Ivy hold. 



Holy hath bcrys as red as any Rose, 



They foster the hunters, kepe him from the doo. 



Ivy hath berys as black as any slo. 



Then com the oule, and etc hym as she goo. 



Holy hath byrdys, a ful fayre flok — 



The Nyghtyngale, the Poppyngy, the gayntyl Lavyrok. 



Good Ivy! what byrdys ast thou! 



Non but the Howlet that 'How! How!'" 



Stowe, in his "Survey of London," published in lo98, says in his time 

 every man's house, the churches, the corners of streets, conduits, and market- 

 crosses were decorated with Holme, (Holly,) Ivy, and Bayes at Christmas. 

 In the language of flowers, the Holly signifies foresight. The Holly is indi- 

 genous to the greater portion of the middle and south of Europe, in woods 

 and shady places. The European species does not appear to be a native 

 of either North America or India; but the Ilex opaca, which is very exten- 

 sively distributed in North America, and the Ilex dipyrena, which is common 

 in the Himalaya, closely resemble Ilex Aquifoliiim. Pallas informs us that 

 the Common Holly scarcely occurs within the ancient limits of the Russian 

 empire; though frequent on the southern side of Caucasus, where it forms a 

 low branching shrub about ten feet high. In France it is abundant, partic- 

 ularly in Britany. In Germany it abounds in many forests, where it attains 

 the height of twenty feet and upwards; in more exposed places only six or 

 eight feet. It attains a greater height in England than in any other country. 

 It abounds more or less all over the country; yet no where so plentiful as 



