Quercus 1 2 8 5 



old, and was said to produce iooo litres of acorns in one year. The flowering 

 of the tree is earlier in Portugal than that of the cork oak, and so profuse that in 

 April the trees had quite a golden appearance. The timber is valued for cart 

 wheels and other farm implements, and preferred to that of the cork oak. It is also 

 largely used for firewood and charcoal. 



Cultivation 



The Ilex or holm ' oak as it was formerly called, was introduced into this country 

 at a very early period, and was known to Clusius in 1581, who spoke of two trees 

 then growing near London, one of which was old enough to bear acorns ; and 

 Evelyn 2 spoke of it as a tree which " thrives manifestly with us ; witness his Majesty's 

 privy garden at Whitehall, where once flourish'd a goodly tree of more than four- 

 score years growth, and there was lately a sickly imp of it remaining. And now 

 very many rais'd by me have thriv'd wonderfully, braving the most severe winters, 

 planted either in standards or hedges, which they most beautifully become." 



It ripens seed freely in the warmer parts of England, and reproduces itself 

 where conditions are suitable ; but pheasants are so fond of the acorns that few 

 get a chance to grow ; and they are better sown in a nursery or in pots, as the 

 roots at first have very few fibres, and the tree, as Evelyn long ago remarked, is 

 difficult to transplant. It is better to move them like hollies late in spring, or in 

 August, if the autumn is moist and the climate mild. The Ilex undoubtedly likes 

 sea air, and rarely grows as large inland as near the coast. It grows well on 

 limestone, but also thrives in a good loamy soil, dry and well drained ; and is 

 sometimes killed by severe winters on wet and cold situations away from the coast. 3 



The tree varies extremely both in habit and foliage ; and in a plantation at the 

 Barton Farm, Osborne, I.W., where cork oaks and Ilex have been planted together, 

 there are many seedlings which might be hybrids, though the bark of the older 

 trees is always a good mark of distinction. In the Prince of Wales plantation, a 

 little beyond the statue in Windsor park, I saw in 1909, a number of trees of very 

 upright habit, which are said to have been planted in 1880, and are now in some 

 cases over 40 ft. high. 



Remarkable Trees 



Among the largest and finest trees in England are those at Mamhead, of which 

 Bradley 4 wrote as follows: "That curious gentleman Robert Balle, Esq., F.R.S., 5 



1 Murray, Eng. Did. v. 343 (1901), states that holm is a phonetic corruption of holn, from holen, hollin, the Old 

 English equivalents of the modern word holly. Holm is used by Chaucer in the Knight's Tale, meaning holly tree. Holm 

 was apparently first used for the evergreen oak by Cooper, Elyots Diet. (1552), "Hex, a tree called by some holme." 

 Holland, Pliny i. 495 (1601), says : "There is an holme growing in the Vatican, elder than Rome it selfe." Ilex, however, 

 is so generally used, that it may now be considered an English word. 



2 Silva, 171 (1706). 



3 In East Anglia, young trees twelve to twenty years old were killed in the severe winter of 1859-60; but old trees escaped 

 with merely a browning of their leaves (cf. Gard. Chron., 1869, p. 167). Many trees at Kew, but not all, were quite defoliated 

 in the severe winter of 1908-9, when the temperature fell to io Fahr. on 30th December. Cf. Kew Bull., 1909, p. 236. 



' Bradley, Improvements of Planting, 38 (1739). 



6 In Polwhele's History 0/ Devonshire (1793) it is said : "The woods and plantations of Mamhead were extensive; 

 many of the trees were introduced by Mr. Thomas Ball, the last of that family (he died in 1749), who returning from the 

 continent, brought with him a quantity of cork tree, Ilices, wainscot oaks (Q. Cerris), chestnuts, acacias, cedars, and other trees." 



