THE NATIVE TREES AND SHRUBS OF CARNARVONSHIRE. 485 
holly yields a large amount of shelter in proportion to the space it 
occupies, forms an almost impenetrable screen, fence, or hedge, and 
possesses the valuable quality of thriving vigorously under the shade 
and drip of other trees. Although most frequently seen as an orna- 
mental shrub or hedge plant, it yet forms a beautiful forest tree of 
from 40 ft. to 70 ft. in height, numerous instances of which might 
be pointed out in several of the northern Scottish counties, particu- 
larly Moray and Aberdeenshire. In this County the holly is usually 
met with in the form of a bushy tree or shrub, that is in a wild 
state, but under cultivation there are specimens upwards of 6 ft. in 
circumference at a yard up, and fully 50 ft. in height. 
As a hedge plant the holly has perhaps no equal, and would, no 
doubt, be oftener used for that purpose were it not for its slow 
growth and seeming difficulty to transplant with safety. Famous 
holly hedges exist in various parts of the country, notably at 
Tyninghame, in East Lothian, planted in 1712; the Holly Walk, 
near Farnham, in Surrey ; at Colinton House, Midlothian, planted 
in 1670; at Gordon Castle, Morayshire; and at Taymouth, in 
Perthshire. Evelyn, it is said, planted a hedge of it at Says Court, 
near Deptford (at the suggestion of Peter the Great, who resided at 
his house when he worked in the dockyard at Deptford), 400 ft. 
long, 9 ft. high, and 5 ft. broad. 
The timber is hard, with a fine grain, white as ivory, and sus- 
ceptible of a fine polish. It is used in veneering, for making 
mathematical and engineering instruments, for carving and cabinet- 
making, and, when stained black, as a substitute for ebony. 
RHAMNACEH (One Species). 
10. The Common Buckthorn (Rhamnus catharticus).—This is a 
rare shrub, with opposite pairs of spiny branches, and ovate-serrate 
leaves. On limestone formations in the south of England it is toler- 
ably abundant, but rare in both Scotland and Ireland. In this 
county I know of only one station where it may be considered as 
truly wild, and where, according to a manuscript that I have lately 
seen, it was known upwards of one hundred years ago. Though 
usually a straggling, many-stemmed bush, of 4 ft. to 5 ft. in height, 
yet, under favourable circumstances, it has been known to attain 
the height of nearly 20 feet, and with a stem of 1 ft. in diameter. 
From the bark a good yellow dye is prepared, while the juice of the 
ripe berries mixed with alum is the sap green of the painters. 
