HOLLY 



tree. ... Is there under Heaven a more glorious and refresh- 

 ing object of the kind than an impregnable hedge of near 

 three hundred feet in length, nine foot high and five in 

 diameter : which I can show in my poor Gardens at any time 

 in the year, glittering with its arm'd and vemished leaves ? 

 The taller Standards at orderly distances blushing with their 

 natural CoraV'^ This apparently was the identical hedge 

 into which Peter the Great used to trundle his wheel- 

 barrows. The barrows contained his courtiers. There was 

 a nice run from the top of rising ground close at hand. It 

 was at Sales Court, Deptford. 



The spiny leaves of the Holly are unfortunately not 

 nearly strong enough to save it from its enemies. The bark 

 is apparently of a particularly delicious and toothsome 

 nature, for sheep, cattle, and the ubiquitous rabbit are 

 always delighted to destroy the trees. 



It has been noticed that wild hollies have at the base 

 very spiny leaves, but that higher up on the tree (above 

 the reach of cattle) the leaves have no spines at all. Sir 

 Herbert Maxwell, in his Memories of the Months,^ takes up 

 this question. It is best to give the description in his own 

 words : — 



" I strolled out along the banks of Tay in that noble wood- 

 land which is continuous from Dunkeld to Murthly. Here 

 there are many fine hollies, some on the river banks and 

 cliffs, others on level ground, planted by no hand of man. 

 There was not one of these which did not confirm my 

 observations first made many years ago, and hardly one 

 which did not bear evidence of special growth — not merely 

 as a reaction against pruning or cropping, but as a pre- 



1 Evelyn, Sihm. 



2 Third Series, p. 60. 



1 86 



