228 ILICINE^ 



The Holly grows in most of the countries of Middle and Southern Europe, 

 as well as in some parts of Africa and Asia, but in few lands is it so large as 

 in ours. Its timber is very firm and white, and well adapted for many 

 purposes of art. It is often made into screens and work-boxes, which ladies 

 adorn by their paintings ; and it is dyed black for ornamental cabinet work, 

 and is little inferior to ebony in hardness and in the high polish of which it 

 is susceptible. It is also stained of various colours for the Tunbridge ware 

 manufactories, and blocks for the engraver are cut out of it, though for the 

 latter purpose it is far inferior to box. 



The Holly will thrive on almost any soil, but the people of Italy believe 

 that the plant when growing wild indicates the presence of alum in the 

 earth j and Evelyn said that coals might often be found where the Holly 

 grows. The idea prevailing in Italy arose, as Beckman tells us, from John 

 di Castro. He used alum in dyeing cloth, and having observed that the 

 Holly grew plentifully in the alumine districts of Asia, was induced, when 

 seeing much of the plant in the neighbourhood of Jolfa, to search there also 

 for this salt. He was confirmed in the opinion that alum abounded in his 

 native soil by finding that the earth had an astringent flavour. His discovery 

 led to the first alum works in modern Europe, which were established at 

 Jolfa by means of Pope Pius II., and it led also to the erroneous idea of the 

 connexion between the alum and the growth of the Holly. 



The Holly was formerly called Holme, Hulver, or Hulfere. It is still 

 used for whip-handles, and this use of its wood seems very ancient. An old 

 writer says : — ■ 



" They their Holly whips have braced, 

 And tough hazel goads have got : 



and far earlier we find Chaucer referring to this use : — 



" The bilder oke, and eke the hardie ashe, 

 The box, pipetre, the Holme to whippes lash ; 

 The sailing firre, the cypres deth to plaiae." 



It is probable that to its old use of decking churches it owes its name of 

 Holly, which is a corruption of the name Holy-tree, by which the monks 

 called it. Its abundant growth gave the name of Holme Chase to a part of 

 Dartmoor, to Holmwood and Holmbury, near Dorking, and to the Holmes- 

 dale Valley, also in Surrey. The plant is still called Holme in Devonshire. 

 In Norfolk it is called Hulver, a name as old as Chaucer's poems, and doubt- 

 less much older : — 



" This herbere was full of flowers gende, 

 Into the wliich as I beholde 'gan, • 

 Betwixt an Hulfere and a woodbende, 

 As I was ware, I saw where lay a man." 



Skinner suggests that this name is either from the English word hold^ 

 and the Anglo-Saxon feor, long — a plant that lasts long — or from "hold 

 fair," because it keeps its beauty all the year. The plant is in France called 

 Le Houx, and is the Stechpalme of the Germans, the Jgrifoglio of the Italians, 

 and the Aceho of the Spaniards. The specific name aqidfoUum signifies 

 needle-leaved. The Persians have a fancy that the Holly-tree casts no 

 shadow ; and they consider an infusion of its leaves as fitted to be applied 



