1720 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



now in better condition than they were twenty-five years ago. Some parts of them 

 are solid green, and quite thick from base to top. The height of the tallest is 40 ft. 

 after clipping, which is done once in two years. The broadest part at the base is 

 2 1 ft. through, and where protected from rabbits the leaves touch the ground. They 

 grow on light dark loamy soil, with a sandy or gravel subsoil, but hollies here thrive 

 equally well on clay with a rocky subsoil. These are supposed to be the oldest and 

 the tallest holly hedges in Scotland, and perhaps in the whole of Great Britain. 



The holly, according to Mr. R. A. Phillips, is distributed throughout Ireland, but 

 is more abundant in the non-calcareous districts of the west, south, and south- 

 east than elsewhere. It also occurs on the islands 1 off the west coast. In 

 Ireland it formerly attained an enormous size, the most famous tree being one 

 on Innisfallen Island, Killarney, which Hayes recorded 2 as 15 ft. in girth in 

 1794; but I could find no trace of it in 1909. There were also remarkable woods 

 in which holly grew nearly pure, and produced valuable timber in quantity. The 

 late Earl Annesley informed Henry that out of a wood of this kind by the lake at 

 Castlewellan his brother sold in 1871 more than ^500 worth of holly timber; but in 

 1906 the largest tree which remained was scarcely 6 ft. in girth. Near Mount 

 Usher, in Wicklow, Henry measured in a wood in 1904 a tree 70 ft. in height and 

 6 ft. in girth. 



Timber, etc. 



The wood of the holly is white, hard, and heavy ; and has a fine close grain, 

 being very homogeneous in texture. It takes a good polish, and is used for making 

 mathematical instruments, for inlaying, and for turnery. Pulley-blocks for ships 

 were formerly made of holly. When dyed black, it is a cheap substitute for ebony. 

 Dallimore states 8 that snuff-boxes were, in the early part of the last century, made 

 out of the knots and burrs that are sometimes found on the trunk. Young straight 

 quickly grown shoots are used for making walking-sticks and whip handles. 



Bird-lime is made out of the mucilaginous bark of the young shoots. 



(H. J. E.) 



1 Praeger, in Proc. R. I. Acad. xxxi. pt. 10, pp. 19, 21, 25, records it for Clare Island. 

 1 Treatise on Planting, 143 (1794). 3 Holly, Yew, and Box, 20 (1908). 



