By Thomas Bruges Flower, Esq. 225 



and boughs with religious rites may, without difficulty, be traced 

 to heathen worship ; and this tree being peculiarly appropriate to 

 such purposes, was originally denominated Holy. In allusion to 

 the enduring nature of the plant, branches were sent by the Romans 

 to their friends with new-year's gifts, as emblematical of a lasting 

 attachment. Engl Bot. t. 496, St. 7. 4. 



Locality. Hedges and copses, especially in a light or gravelly 

 soil. Tree, Fl. May, August. Fr. October. Area, 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 

 Recorded in all the Districts. A handsome evergreen tree of slow 

 growth, but great beauty, with smooth greyish bark. Leaves 

 alternate petioled, deep shining green, very thick and rigid, upper 

 ones entire, with only a terminal spine, lower ones, with strong 

 sharp spines. Flowers copious, white, tinged externally with purple. 

 Calyx small, ciliated at the edges. Berries bright scarlet, occasion- 

 ally yellow.' The custom of ornamenting our churches and 

 dwelling-houses at Christmas, with sprigs of holly, is well known, 

 and appears to be of very ancient date ; Dr. Chandler supposes it 

 may have been derived from the Druids, who are said to have 

 decorated their dwellings, during winter with evergreens, but it is 

 more likely to have been first adopted by the early Christians, at 

 Kome, where the holly had long been used as an emblem of good 

 wishes, in the great festival of the Saturnalia celebrated about that 

 period of the year. Agreeable associations, connected with returning 

 seasons, keep up such practices long after their original meaning is 

 forgotten. 



ORDER. JASMINACE^. (LINN.) 



LiGusTRUM, (Linn.) Privet. 

 Linn. CI. ii. Ord. i. 



Name. A word used by Virgil " alba ligustra cadunt." Privet, 



or Prim-print, of which obsolete name Privet is a corruption. 



Ligustrum, said to be from ligo, (Lat.) to bind, in allusion to the 



flexible branches of the plant. 



' " Holy is indifferently common in Malmesbury hundred, and also on the 

 borders of the New Forest: it seemes to indicate pitt-coale. In Wardour 

 Parke are holy-trees that beare yellow berries. I think I have seen the like in 

 Cranbonme Chase." Aubrey, Nat. Hist. Wilts., p. 55. 



VOL. XI. — NO. XXXII. B 



