HOLLY BUSH. 



ILEX. 



1LICU>E.S. TETRANTMtIA TETUAGYNIA. 



French, le houx, le grand housson, 1'agron, le grand pardon, 

 bois franc ; Italian, agrifoglio, alloro spinoso ; English, holly, 

 holme, or hulver. 



THE Common Holly, Ilex aquifolium, at full growth, 

 is generally from twenty to thirty feet high ; yet it 

 is sometimes seen as high as sixty feet. The general ap- 

 pearance of this tree is well known. When the Holly 

 grows naturally, and is old, the upper part of the tree 

 is clothed with entire leaves, without thorns, only ending 

 in a sharp point. The flowers, which are of a dingy 

 white, appear in May, in clusters of three, four, or five, 

 and are succeeded by roundish berries, which, about 

 Michaelmas, turn to a beautiful scarlet ; and these, when 

 not eaten by the birds, will hang on great part of the 

 winter. 



The Holly is a native of this country, and many other 

 parts of Europe, of North America, Japan, Cochin- 

 China, &c. 



" It grows so spontaneously in this part of Surrey," 

 says Evelyn, " that the large vale near my own dwell- 

 ing was anciently called Holmesdale. In Dungeness, in 

 Kent, it grows even among the pebbles on the beach. 1 " 



The Holly should be in every shrubbery or plantation, 

 for the beauty of its shining evergreen leaves, and of its 

 scarlet berries, will still remain when little vegetation is 

 to be seen : and if a few of the best varieties of variegated 



