1073 



introduced a scanty sprinkling of isolated plants. I own that I am for the warm ar- 

 boreous plan of ancient days; and thus I never pass a garden where yew and holly 

 hedges grow, without stopping to admire them, and then I proceed onwards with fa- 

 vourahle notions of the owner's taste. 



" But, to the holly in particular. I am so convinced of its utility both to men and 

 birds, that I have spared no pains in rearing it as a shelter from the cold, when Boreas 

 sure harbinger of storms, sweeps over the dreary waste. 



***** 



" I consider a regularly formed clump of hollies to be the perfection of beauty, in 

 grouped arboreal design. One single tree of mountain ash in the centre of this would 

 add another charm to it, and would be of use to the ornithologist at the close of sum- 

 mer. When the holly trees are in full bearing, and the berries ripe, we may roam a 

 long while through the whole extent of British Botany, before we find a sioht more 

 charming to the eye than the intermixture of bright red and green which this lovely 

 plant produces. 



" I have a fine circular clump of hollies here, under which the pheasants are fed • 

 and to which, throughout the whole of the winter, a vast number of sparrows, green 

 linnets, buntings, blackbirds, and some starlings resort, to take their nocturnal repose 

 in peace and quiet. The holly sheds a large proportion of its leaves after the summer 

 has set in. These remain on the ground in thick profusion. So formidable are their 

 hard and pointed spikes to the feet of prowling quadrupeds, that neither the cat nor 

 the weasel, nor the foumart, nor the fox, nor even the ever-hungry Hanoverian rat 

 dare invade the well-defended territory. Hence the birds, which in yew-trees and ivv 

 would be exposed to inevitable destruction from the attacks of these merciless foes 

 are safe from danger in the holly bush," — p. 32. 



The author feelingly laments over the destruction of the hollj-trees, 

 occasianed by a vile practice of " strolling vagabonds," who strip off 

 the bart and sell it to the makers of bird-lime. He says that "so 

 common has this act of depredation been in this vicinity, that I should 

 be at a loss to find a single holly tree, in any hedge outside of the 

 park wall, that has escaped the knife of these unthinking spoilers." 

 An instance is adduced of a magnificent variegated holly, which an- 

 nually bore a large crop of berries. One morning the bole of this 

 tree was found stripped of its bark for full two feet in length. The 

 tree survived the injury until the third year, when it died. 



The Yeiv Tree. 



" I am extremely partial to the yew-tree. It has already repaid me for the pains 

 which I have taken in its cultivation ; and when I resort to my usual evening stand 

 in order to watch the flocks of sparrows, finches, and starlings, whilst they are dropping 

 in upon the neighbouring hollies, I feel not the wintry blast ; as the yew trees, which 

 are close at hand, are to me a shield against its fury ; and, in fact, they offer me a 

 protection little inferior to that of the house itself. 



***** 



" Charming is the appearance of the yew tree after the sun has passed the autum- 

 nal equinox. The delicate crimson of its fruit, with the dark green leaves behind it 



4x 



