386 



WINTER FLOWERS AND FRUITS. 



" The seasons came and went, and went and came, 

 To teach men gratitude ; and, as they passed, 

 Grave warning of the lapse of time, that else 

 Had stolen unheeded by. The gentle flowers 

 Eetired, and stooping o'er the wilderness. 

 Talked of hxmiility and peace and lore." 



PolloJc. 



ILLUSTEATIONS. 



Of real genuine winter flowers we have none_, and in their 

 stead we introduce the Holly and the Mistletoe^, the emblems 

 of the closing year. True that here and there stray flowers 

 of various forms may meet the eye, but they are the chance 

 productions of favoured spots or of favoured seasons, some 

 remnants of the past, some mayhap, like the Primrose, har- 

 bingers of the coming year, and not one of them to be de- 

 pended on. We must be content with the coloured berries of 

 the Holly and the Mistletoe. 



The Holly^ belongs to the regular-flowered Monopetals, 

 and affords an illustration of the Aquifoliaceous family. It 

 is a small bushy evergreen tree or large shrub, of erect habit, 

 furnished with abundant leaves, which are of a shining green, 

 thick, stalked, ovate, and much waved at the margin, where 



* Ilex Aquifolium — Plate 21 C. 



