12 FAMILIAR TREES 



boy has followed Turner's example in the manu- 

 facture of birdlime by chewing holly-bark. Under 

 the form holm, the name of the Holly enters into 

 many of our early English place-names, such as 

 Holmesdale and Holmswood ; and no one has ever 

 doubted the indigenous character of the species, 

 which is still represented by ancient trees in the 

 oldest portions of our English forests. 



On the poor, sandy soil of the Millstone Grit, in 

 the old forest of Kingswood, now better known as the 

 Bristol coalfield, the Hollies flourished so luxuriantly 

 that chatty old Aubrey suggests that they derive 

 benefit " from the effluvia of that mineral." The 

 Speech-house in the centre of the Forest of Dean is 

 surrounded by ancient Hollies, boughs cut from which 

 used, down to within the last seventy years, to take 

 the place of the Testament in every oath sworn in the 

 Verderer's court. Evidence has been brought forward 

 to show that this Speech-house is a most ancient ren- 

 dezvous, and that the Holly was planted as a sacred 

 tree round the villages of the Kelts, even on the bleak 

 downs of Cornwall. Holly forms a great part of the 

 undergrowth in the older parts of Epping Forest, 

 where its evergreen foliage excited the admiration 

 of Peter Kalm, the pupil of Linnseus, avIio visited 

 England in 1748, and who expressed his regret at 

 the absence of this beautiful tree from Sweden. The 

 New Forest is also noted for its Hollies. One of the 

 largest individuals in the kingdom is probably that at 

 Claremont, eighty feet in height, which, considering 

 the extremely slow growth of the tree, may be a relic 

 of the primeval forest of North Surrey. 



