FIE-BAPE HOLLY. 189 



This curious unnatural flower, which looks as though it had 

 been buried and dug up again, grows parisitically on the roots 

 of Pine and Fir, and hence it is called Fir-rape ; its other 

 name, Bird's-nest, being in reference to the overlapping scales 

 at the foot of the stem, which seems to make a snug nest. 

 The whole plant is of a light yellow brown, and the spikes, 

 bent at first, have somewhat the appearance of horses' heads. 

 The terminal flower has ten stamens, the others have eight. 

 The blossoms are rather bell-shaped, and there is no nearer 

 approach to leaves than the rude scales which adorn the stem. 

 I found my plants in a wooded hollow on Warminster Down, 

 facetiously called the " Frying-pan" (Monotropa hypopitys, 

 .#7.10). " 



Our common HOLLY (Ilex aquifolia), is the only British 

 member of its order (Aquifoliacese) . Its name is a corruption 

 of holy, because it is used to decorate churches at Christmas. 

 Its Latin name means " needle-leaved." They say that the 

 bark has tonic properties ; bird-lime is made from it, and the 

 wood is used in inlaying. It is a remarkable fact, that the 

 leaves upon the higher branches are often without spines. 



" Below a circling fence its leaves are seen 



Wrinkled and keen, 

 No grazing cattle through their prickly round 



Can reach to wound ; 



But as they grow where nothing is to fear, 

 Smooth and unarmed the pointless leaves appear." 



SOCTHET. 



Mr. Johns relates that a certain John di Castro, having 

 learned the method of boiling alum at Constantinople, returned 

 to his own country to pursue his researches in natural history. 

 He found near Tolfa the Holly tree growing ; and, as he had 

 observed the same shrub to flourish in the alum districts of 

 Asia, he began to search for alum beneath the soil. Ere long he 

 was able to establish profitable alum works. The first English 

 alum works were opened in the neighbourhood of Guisborough, 

 in Yorkshire. Sir J. Challoner first observed that the foliage 



