224 HOW TO GROW GOOD FENCES. 



golden and silver, variegated in six or seven differences, which proceeds 

 from no difference in the species, but accidentally, and naturce lusu, 

 as most such variegations do, since we are taught how to effect it 

 artificially, namely by sowing the seeds, and planting in gravelly soil 

 mixed with store of chalk, pressing it hard down : it being certain 

 that they return to their native colour when sown in richer mould, 

 and that all the fibres of the roots recover their natural food. 



The differences in the colour of the fruit, as of the 

 colour and shape of the leaves, is truly a matter of 

 variety. The red-berried holly, under the name of 

 " Christmas," is quite an article of commerce at the 

 festive season — so much so that a friend of ours 

 in the neighbourhood of Stroud, who this year 

 (1864-5) had a large tree well covered with berries, 

 assured us that he had great difficulty in preventing 

 it going to market with some of the marauders, who 

 scour the country in search of anything they can 

 sell. 



In the "Worcester market we for many years 

 noticed a sprinkling of white, or, rather, yellowish- 

 berried holly, a spray or two of which was always 

 put with the bundle of the red-berried in effecting 

 the many Christmas sales. 



As regards the difference in the leaves, although 

 it is true that in the gardens we have a smooth and 

 unarmed variety, however dwarf the specimen may 

 be, yet in wild examples the smooth leaves will, for 

 the most part, only be found on the upper parts of 

 tall trees ; the poet, then, has been as true to Nature 

 as graceful in art in the poem of which the following 

 lines form a part : — 



Below, a circling fence, its leaves are seen 

 Wrinkled and keen. 



