198 REMARKS ON THE HOLLY.' 



of a greenhouse, close to the building, I had the old soil dugout 

 a foot deep, at the bottom, I laid four inches of broken potsherds 

 in large pieces, and rilled up the space with a compost as above 

 stated ; in this I planted out sixty plants, the latter kinds at the 

 back, sloping to the walk, running parallel with the front of the 

 bed, and they bloomed prodigiously from the first week in June 

 till November, when I had them taken up and repotted. I also 

 repotted those on the rock work, kept them in the greenhouse, and 

 turned them out again in the spring. During the mild winters of 

 1835 and 1836, I tried to keep those on the rock work alive, but 

 was unsuccessful. 



Bristol, July 7th 1 838. Laura. 



ARTICLE V. 



REMARKS ON THE HOLLY. 



(Continued from page 176.) 



" Amongst the kinds of holly which we noticed in the 'Jardin 

 des Plantes at Paris, we were most pleased with a variety, with a 

 very small pointed leaf, named Aquifolium serratum, and a second 

 with a very broad leaf, quite free from spines, which was called 

 Ilex balearica. 



Columella seems to have recommended the Holly to the Ro- 

 mans as a proper fence for gardens. In his tenth book he says, 



" And let such grounds with walls or prickly hedge, 

 Thick set, surrounded be, and well secured; 

 Not pervious to the cattle, nor the thief," 



Evelyn tells us that his garden at Say's Court was surrounded 

 with an impregnable hedge of about four hundred feet in length, 

 nine feet high, and five in diameter; " It mocks," says this wor- 

 thy author, " the rudest assaults of the weather, beasts, or hedge- 

 breakers;" and it was almost the only thing belonging to his garden, 

 that was not destroyed by the Czar of Muscovy. Mr. Evelyn lent 

 his house to Peter the Great, in order that he might be near the 

 dock-yard at Deptford, during his stay in England; and we are 

 told that this imperial shipwright was so fond of being driven in a 

 wheelbarrow over the box edgings and parterres of the author of 

 the Sylva, that they were entirely destroyed ; " which," says he, 



