CHAP. XXXIV. AQUIFOLIA CEH. I‘LEX. 509 
¢ I. A. 19 aureo-pictum Hort. The gold-spotted-leaved common 
Holly. — The following subvarieties are in Messrs. Loddiges’s ar- 
boretum. Nos. 11, 14, 16, 26, 27, and 30. 
2 L.A. 20 ferox argénteum Hort. The silver-blotched Hedgehog common 
Holly. 
2 I. A. 21 feror atreum Hort. The gold-blotched Hedgehog common 
Holly. 
C. Varieties designated from the Colour of the Fruit. 
21. A. 22 frictu liteo Hort. The yellow-fruited common Holly. 
¢ I. A. 23 fractu dlbo Hort. The white-fruited common Holly. 
Geography. The holly is indigenous in most parts of the middle and south 
of Europe, in woods and shady places, in free and rather sandy soil; it is 
also said to be found in Japan and China. The European species does not 
appear to be a native either of North America or India; but the J‘lex opaca, 
which is very extensively distributed in North America, and the J. dipyréna, 
which is common in the Himalaya, so closely resemble J. Aquifdlium, that 
they are probably only varieties of it. According to Pallas, the common 
holly scarcely occurs within the ancient limits of the Russian empire; though 
frequent on the southern side of Caucasus, where it forms a low branching 
shrub, about 10 ft. high. In France it is abundant, more particularly in 
Britany. In Germany it abounds in many forests, particularly in the south- 
ern and middle states; where, when sheltered by lofty trees, it attains the 
height of 20 ft.; but, in exposed situations, it does not rise higher than 6 ft. or 
8 ft. The tree appears to attain alarger size in England than in any other part 
of Europe. It is very generally distributed over the country, more especially 
in loamy soils. It abounds more or less in the remains of all aboriginal 
forests, and perhaps, at present, it prevails nowhere to a greater extent than 
in the remains of Needwood Forest, in Staffordshire; there are many fine 
holly trees, also, in the New Forest, in Hampshire. In Scotland it is com- 
mon in most natural woods, as an undergrowth to the oak, the ash, and the 
pine. The greatest collection of hollies that we recollect to have seen or 
heard of, Sang observes, “ grew in the pine forest of Blackhall, on the river 
Dee, about 20 miles above Aberdeen. Many of the trees were very large, 
and furnished a great quantity of timber, which was sent to London, where 
it fetched a high price.” (Plant. Kal., p.15.) The holly, Sir T. D. Lauder 
states, is found in great abundance on the banks of the river Findhorn, in 
Aberdeenshire, and the trees grow to a very great size. So plentiful were 
they in the forest of Tarnawa, on its left bank, that for many years the castle 
of Tarnawa was supplied with no other fuel than billets of holly; and yet the 
trees are still so numerous, that, in going through the woods (in 1834), no 
one would suppose that any such destruction had been committed. (Lauder’s 
Gilpin, i. p. 194.) In Ireland, the holly is not very common; but about the 
Lakes of Killarney it attains a large size. 
History. The tree has been much admired from the earliest periods; and 
formerly, when it was customary to enclose and subdivide gardens by hedges, 
the holly was employed by all those who could afford to procure the plants, 
and wait for their comparatively slow growth. Evelyn’s holly hedge, at Say’s 
Court, Deptford, which was 400 ft. in length, 9 ft. high, and 5ft.in diameter, 
has been celebrated in the history of this tree ever since the time of Ray ; 
and other holly hedges, famous in their day, were those of Lord Dacre, at his 
park in Sussex, and of Sir Matthew Decker, at Richmond. “ I have seen 
hedges,” Evelyn observes, “ or, if you will, stout walls of holly, 20 feet in 
height, kept upright; and the gilded sort budded low, and in two or three 
places one above another, shorn and fashioned into columns and pilasters, 
architecturally shaped, and at due distance; than which nothing can pos- 
sibly be more pleasant, the berry adorning the intercolumniations with scarlet 
festoons, and encarpa.” In Scotland, the most celebrated holly hedges were 
