TREES, EVERGREENS, AND SHRUBS. 31 



recollected when a favourite shrub of this variety having 

 begun to bud forth, after having been long deprived of free 

 light and air, was ruthlessly stripped bare by a group of 

 youngsters, who could see no harm in pulling leaves, 

 altliough their consciences and the dread of the gardener 

 might restrain them from ^iMokm^floivers. 



Southey's well-known lines to the holly tree may find 

 fit space here for quotation ; indeed, all poetical allusions 

 to our favourite shrubs and trees enhance our pleasure 

 in them, by suggesting thoughts and images, or sometimes 

 a moral, that mio'ht never have struck ourselves. 



I. 



' reader ! bast thou ever stood to see 



The Holly Trse ? 

 The eye that contemplates it well perceives 



Its glossy leaves, 

 Order'd by an Intelligence so wise 

 As might confound the atheist's sophistries. 



II. 



Below a circling fence, its leaves are seen 



Wrinkled and keen ; 

 Iso grazing cattle thi'ough their prickly round 



Can reach to wound ; 

 But as they grow where nothing is to fear, 

 Smooth and unarm VI the pointless leaves appear. 



in. 

 I love to view these things with curious eyes, 



And moralise : 

 And in the wisdom of the Holly Tree 



Can emblems see 

 Wherewith perchance to make a pleasant rhyme. 

 One which may profit in the after time. 



