WILD CHERRY 33 



lightning. The name so resembles holy that it was said to cause 

 witches to be afraid of the tree. It was thought to possess virtues as 

 a dream plant, and was used on Christmas Eve, New Year's Day, 

 Midsummer, and Hallowe'en. An anxious lover would place three 

 pails of water in her bedchamber and pin three leaves of Holly to her 

 nightdress, near the heart, and then go to sleep. She thinks she will 

 be roused from sleep by three yells, as though from three bears, and 

 three hoarse laughs. When they have died away her future husband 

 appears and changes the position of the pails. 



Wreaths of Holly were sent for congratulation at a wedding in 

 Rome. The ancients regarded it as a sign of the life which preserved 

 nature, through winter, and it was brought into temples to comfort 

 sylvan spirits. 



A cure for chilblains is to thresh them with Holly. It was held that 

 its flowers formed water and drove off lightning. According to an old 

 tradition if a Holly stick is thrown at an animal, even without hitting 

 it, it would return and lie down by it. It has been used in feasts of 

 purification of savage people. In Germany it was the Christ thorn. 

 It is universally grown as an ornamental shrub, and hedges are made 

 of it and kept clipped like box. Bird-lime is prepared by boiling it. 

 The bark is used in place of cinchona. In the Black Forest the 

 natives use it to make tea. Paraguay tea or mate is derived from 

 an Ilex (/. paraguayensis]. 



Tunbridge ware is made from Holly. The wood is white and 

 hard, and used for inlay work. 



Holly is very long-lived, and is ubiquitous, preferring a dry soil, 

 but is slow-growing, and never reaches a great size. 



Evelyn had a hedge at Deptford 400 ft. long, 9 ft. high, and 

 15 ft. broad. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



72. Ilex Aquifolium, L. Tree, with ovate leaves, spinose below, 

 evergreen, shining, glabrous, peduncles many-flowered, flowers white, 

 umbelled corolla rotate, berry red, poisonous. 



Wild Cherry (Prunus Cerasus, L.) 



There is no trace of this in early Glacial beds. It is found in the 

 Northern Temperate Zone in Europe, eastward to the Himalayas, in 

 the Azores, and Canaries. In Great Britain it is found in Cornwall, 

 Somerset, N. Devon, Wilts, Dorset, Isle of Wight, West Sussex, 

 throughout the Thames province except West Kent, in Anglia every- 



