July i, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



77 



THE HOLLY. 



The holly is a general favom-ite, and it is found 

 moi"e or less in all ornamental gi'ounds and policies. 

 Whenjilanted out singly it has a very striking eft'ect ; 

 it also forms a close ornamental hedge, antl is used Tery 

 extensively as underwood. There is a gi'eat variety of 

 hollies — ^golden, silver, smooth, prickley, &c. There is 

 one variety (7/c',v Farariuayensis), a native of South 

 iUnerica, tlie leaves of which are diied and roasted, and 

 used as tea by the natives :■ so great is the demand for 

 it that nearly eight million pounds are consumed annu- 

 ally. The common holly {Ilex aquifuUum) is raised 

 from seed, which ripens dm-ing the winter months. Some 

 trees ripen earlier than others, according to situation 

 and exposure. Great patience is needed in the manage- 

 ment of the hoUy berries ; they must lie a year amongst 

 sand, in which they must be well bedded, to prevent 

 tliem heating : care must also be taken to protect them 

 from the ravages of mice. After lying a year in the 

 heap, they should be sown in beds about thi-ee-and-a- 

 half feet broad, amongst free, light sod if possible ; 

 when the seed is sown it should be clapped down level 

 with the back of the spade, and a thin covering of fine 

 pulverized soil spread on the top. 



It sometimes happens that but few pLants come up 

 the tii-st year ; when this is the case the bed must just 

 be kept clean until the following spring, when a second 

 and fidler brau-d will appear. It may happen, however, 

 that the seed may be inferior and never germinate at 

 all ; but it is a safe rule not to be in a huny to dig 

 over the seed-bed. The hoUy thrives best on a light, 

 dry sod, for there is no plant that succumbs more quickly 

 to the effects of wet tliau the hoUy. There is a fine 

 hoUy hedge on the Dalkeith Park Estate, and on sev- 

 eral occasions part of it have turned brown and sickly. 

 On examining the roots I invariably find that they have 

 come in contact with stagnant water, or stili', impenetr- 

 able soil; when this is reinedied the plants m a year 

 or two get strong and healthy. There are also thousands 

 of hollies growing all over the estate as miderwood, and 

 the best plants ai-e found on a light, loamy sod, resting 

 on a bed of g:-avel. The plants on the outside of the 

 plantations with an open exposure foi-m an impenetrable 

 thicket, as many of the under branches take root, and 

 send out a mass of vigorous gi-owth ; this forms excel- 

 lent cover for aU kinds of game, pheasants especially, 

 as they roost amongst the branches at night. In order 

 to make good cover, therefore, hollies must have room ; 

 if they are crowded together you only produce bare poles. 



Where the soil is suitable, 30 feet apart will be found 

 to be a good average distance for planting hoUy as 

 underwood. Sometimes hollies get (b-awn up when grow- 

 ing immediately unler forest trees with dense foliage ; 

 when this occm-s the tops should be cut oft', which Las 

 the effect of thickening the undergrowth. 



I do not wonder that the holly has become a uni- 

 versal favourite ; its shining foliage studded with red 

 berries gives to the woods quite a gay appearance, even 

 iu the dead of winter. Throughout the festive season 

 also the holly figures largely in all kinds of decorations, 

 the other evergreens appearing very tame without it. 

 But, although it is one of the best evergi-eens, I am 

 sorry to say it is also one of the most attractive to 

 vermiu, for unless it is protected it is literally at the 

 mercy of hares and rabbits. Unlike other trees, it does 

 not protect itself by forming rough or corrugated bark 

 at its base ; hence a plant forty years old is just as 

 liable to be destroyed as one newly out of the nursery. 

 It is quite a common thing to find duiiug a hea\y 

 snow-storm trees a foot in diameter peeled round and 

 round beyond recovery. I do not know of anytliing 

 more disheartening than to have a lot of hollies, which 

 have cost no little trouble in the rearing, kille.l off' in 

 tiiis \\ay. Thou is no use in blinking the fact that, 

 unless hares and rabbits are kept down within a certain 

 limit, it is needless to attempt to grow hollies, I in- 



clude hares, for they are just as bad as rabbits. I do 

 not suppose that these animals will ever be exterminated, 

 and so long as even a few of them are roamingalnmt, so 

 long ivm hollies be exposed to damage from their attacks. 



I read with great interest an article by Mr. McCor- 

 quodale, m the Jotmml for ..\ugU6t, on the subject of 

 how to protect trees from rabbits. I woidd feel obliged 

 ff he wmdd let us know if he has tried the e.xperiment 

 ot nd)bmg the tar on the trees in its cold state, by 

 means of a rag, because up to this time I have found 

 it necessaiy to give it a gentle heat, so as to spread 

 it equally over the surface, and also to make the coat- 

 mg as thin as possible; and instead of a rag, we use 

 a brush. I confess that I do not see any analogy 

 whatever between a tree and the human body as illus- 

 trating the ppmt in hand. If it is true that our sldiis 

 are more tender and porous than the bark of trees, 

 and our food and assimilating organs the opposite of 

 theu-s, then those are the very reasons why thev should 

 be treated differently, and ought uot to 'be compared 

 with each other. 



We have used coal tar for many years to protect oiu- 

 hoUies. If the stems are about three inches in diameter, 

 it does not seem to do them any injuiy, but anything 

 under that has to be treated vei-y cautiously. There is 

 no doubt at all that tar has an iujiuious eflect on the 

 tender bark of young hollies, as I have seen them fre- 

 quently die from its effects ; in such cases it was a 

 choice of the lesser of two evils. 



During the months of July and August I have been 

 trying a new experiment in the way of protecting hol- 

 lies While engaged in thinning oalis, we had occasion 

 to cut down about fifty Spanish chestnuts. We got 

 those trees carefidly peeled, and cut the bark iuto^lS 

 in. lengths. After an-angiug the difl'trent sizes, two men 

 were told oft' to put a length of bark round eacli holly 

 stem ; as a rule very little fitting was needed, the only 

 fastening required being a piece of lope yarn to keep 

 the bark together. We have operated upon 200 hoUies 

 in this way, all good specimens, but which had all 

 been nibbled at more or less during last winter. In 

 going through them lately I find that the bark' has 

 shrunk tightly round the holly stems, and the rope yarn 

 hanging quite loose ; I intend to let it remain, how- 

 ever, as the bark may slacken if wet weather sets in. 



Now, some of these hoUies have then- branches nearly 

 touching the ground, and it is next to impossible to 

 detect the chestnut bark, as its colour is almost ident- 

 ical to the hoUy, and, where it is seen, it is certainly 

 preferable to the black coating of tar. Where the trees 

 are large, we foimd that the appearance of the bark 

 was improved by vaudyking its upper edge. As this 

 xpeiimeut is new, I cannot say much about it yet, 

 but these guards have this recommendation, that they 

 are cheap, are easily applied, and at the least T\-ill 

 stand for six or seven years. Robert Baxter. 



— Journal of Forestry. 



THE MAHWA TREE. 



This is one of the Indian food-trees. The name is 

 speUcd in a variety of ways, Mhowa, Malwah, and as 

 abdve Mahwa, and is applied not only to the Bassia 

 lat.folin, hut to B. butyracea and B. longifolia*, which 

 alst) bear edible fruits. The singularity of (he genus 

 coiisists iu the fact, that not only is the fruit eatiibJe 

 but the fleshy deciduous corollas are also largely em- 

 ployed by the natives of India for the same pm-jiose, 

 coi stituting in point of fact a staple, and indeed some- 

 times the only article of diet available for the verv 

 poorest classes during some months of the year. The 

 tree is not unlike our oak in form, size, andtlie colour- 

 ing of the foliage ; it gi-ov, s from thirty to forty feet 

 high; flowers in the moriths nf March aud .■Vpril; is 

 fou nd in nearly every part of Central India, and is 



* IVlmeeguba of the Sinhalese and lllupei of the 

 Tamils in Uejlon. — Ei?, 



