Trees anei their Associations 



2/9 



year. At the head of this class we must 

 place the green holly. Our antient writers 

 called it the " Holy tree " and Christ's thorn, 

 and our botanists the holm hoHy, a term 

 which is still in use with an evergreen tree — 

 the holm or Ilex oak, because in its leaves it 

 resembles the holly. 



Tradition says that the holly was unknown 

 before it sprang up in perfection beneath the 

 footsteps of Christ, when He first trod the 

 earth, and that although men have forgotten 

 its attributes, the beasts all reverence it, and 

 are never known to injure it. This tradition 

 may have arisen from the fact of Christ being 

 born in a stable and nurtured in a manger 

 amidst cattle, who might thus imbibe strong 

 feelings of reverence for everything connected 

 with his early days. Lingering in quiet cor 

 ners of the country, where only tradition finds 

 a home, we are told that " the thorny leaves 

 of the holly and its scarlet berries like drops 

 of blood, are symbolical of our Saviour's 

 sufferings." It holds a far different place in 

 our festive scenes. " Bamfrylde " says — 



" With footsteps slow in fairy pall yclatl, 

 His brows enwreathed with holly never sear, 

 Old Christmas comes to close the waning year." 



And to use old George Withers' words — 



" So now is come our joyful'st feast ; 

 Let every one be jolly; 

 Each room with ivy leaves is drest, 

 And every post with holly." 



Pliny says "the Greek name for the holly 

 was ' Agria,' " and that if planted in a house 

 or farm, it repels poison ; that its flowers cause 

 water to freeze, and that a staff of its wood, 

 if thrown at any animal — even if it fall short 

 of the mark — has the wonderful property of 

 compelling such animal to return and lie down 

 by it. When the holly first became connected 

 with religious feasts is an unsolved question. 

 Dr Chandler supposes the custom to have 

 been derived from the Druids, who, he says, 

 decorated dweUing-places with evergreens 

 during winter, that the sylvan sprites might 

 repair to them, and remain unnipped with the 

 frost and cold winds until a milder season had 

 renewed the foliage of their darling abodes. 



Certainly the custom, whencesoever it was 

 derived, was sanctioned by the church, for 

 in old church calendars Christmas eve is 

 marked " Templa exonianta " — " churches are 

 decked." 



Now, when we recollect that the three great 

 Jewish festivals — the Passover, the Pentecost, 

 and the Feast of Tabernacles — are typical of 

 the three Christian festivals (Easter, Whit- 

 suntide, and Christmas), at least by the 

 periods of the year, may we not infer that the 

 early Christians adopted the custom of deck- 

 ing their churches and dwellings with green 

 boughs, to shew the connexion between the 

 Jewish Feast of Tabernacles and the festival 

 at which they commemorated the fact — " The 

 Word was made flesh, and dwelt," or, as it 

 maybe more correctly rendered, " tabernacled 

 amongst us." Other authors are of opinion 

 that the custom sprang from the Romans, who 

 were in the habit of sending boughs of holly, 

 accompanied by other gifts, to their friends 

 during the festival of Saturnalia in December. 

 It is supposed that the early Christians 

 adopted this method of shewing goodwill in 

 order to conciliate their pagan neighbours, 

 and also, to screen themselves from persecu- 

 tion, decked their houses with its branches 

 during their own celebration of the Nativity. 

 History upon the subject throws but little 

 light ; we must be content to repose our faith 

 in the origin of these customs on tradition. 

 That the holly has been associated with the 

 festivities of Christmas from very antient times 

 we are all willing to admit, and that " Christ- 

 mas" is as common a name for holly as 

 '• May " is for the flowering hawthorn. We 

 have only to search amongst our old ballads, 

 carols, and manuscripts, for confirmation of 

 these facts. Dr Turner, our earliest writer 

 upon plants, calls it the Holy tree, and the 

 same term is applied to it in an old manu- 

 script ballad in the British Museum, written 

 in praise of the holly. I have extracted a 

 few verses to shew you its character — 



" May my May, hyt shal not be I wys 



Let Holy have the maysterie, as the maner ys. 



" Holy stands in the hall, fayre to behold, 

 Ivy stoud without the dore, she ys ful sore a cold, 



]May my May, &c. 



