CHAP. XXXIV. ^UlFOLIA X CEyE. 7 X LEX. 509 



f 1. A. 10 aurco-pictum Ilort. The goM-spotted-leaved common 



Holly. The following subvarietics are in Messrs. Loddiges's ar- 



boretum. Nos. 11, 14, 16,26, 27, and 30. 

 1 I. A. 20 ferox argenteum Hort. The silver-blotched Hedgehog common 



Holly. 

 1 I. A. 21 fcroic aureum Hort. The go/rf-blotched Hedgehog common 



Holly. 



C. Varieties designated from the Colour of the Fruit. 



1 I. A. 22fri(ctn lutco Hort. The yellow-fruited common Holly. 

 I. A. 23fructu dlbo Hort. The white-fruited common Holly. 



Geography. The holly is indigenous in most parts of the middle and south 

 of Europe, in woods and shady places, in free and rather sandy soil ; it is 

 also said to be found in Japan and China. The European species does not 

 appear to be a native either of North America or India ; but the /'lex opaca, 

 which is very extensively distributed in North America, and the /. dipyrena, 

 which is common in the Himalaya, so closely resemble /. ^quifolium, that 

 they are probably only varieties of it. According to Pallas, the common 

 holly scarcely occurs within the ancient limits of the Russian empire; though 

 frequent on the southern side of Caucasus, where it forms a low branching 

 shrub, about 10ft. high. In France it is abundant, more particularly in 

 Britany. In Germany it abounds in many forests, particularly in the south- 

 ern and middle states ; where, when sheltered by lofty trees, it attains the 

 height of 20 ft. ; but, in exposed situations, it does not rise higher than 6 ft. or 

 8 ft. The tree appears to attain a larger size in England than in any other part 

 of Europe. It is very generally distributed over the country, more especially 

 in loamy soils. It abounds more or less in the remains of all aboriginal 

 forests, and perhaps, at present, it prevails nowhere to a greater extent than 

 in the remains of Needwood Forest, in Staffordshire ; there are many fine 

 holly trees, also, in the New Forest, in Hampshire. In Scotland it is com- 

 mon in most natural woods, as an undergrowth to the oak, the ash, and the 

 pine. The greatest collection of hollies that we recollect to have seen or 

 heard of, Sang observes, " grew in the pine forest of Blackball, on the river 

 Dee, about 20 miles above Aberdeen. Many of the trees were very large, 

 and furnished a great quantity of timber, which was sent to London, where 

 it fetched a high price." (Plant. KaL, p. 15.) The holly, Sir T.D. Lauder 

 states, is found in great abundance on the banks of the river Findhorn, in 

 Aberdeenshire, and the trees grow to a very great size. So plentiful were 

 they in the forest of Tarnawa, on its left bank, that for many years the castle 

 of Tarnawa was supplied with no other fuel than billets of holly ; and yet the 

 trees are still so numerous, that, in going through the woods (in 1834), no 

 one would suppose that any such destruction had been committed. (Lander's 

 Gilpin, i. p. 194.) In Ireland, the holly is not very common; but about the 

 Lakes of Killarney it attains a large size. 



History. The tree has been much admired from the earliest periods ; and 

 formerly, when it was customary to enclose and subdivide gardens by hedges, 

 the holly was employed by all those who could afford to procure the plants, 

 and wait for their comparatively slow growth. Evelyn's holly hedge, at Say's 

 Court, Deptford, which was 400 ft. in length, 9 ft. high, and 5 ft. in diameter, 

 has been celebrated in the history of this tree ever since the time of Ray ; 

 and other holly hedges, famous in their day, were those of Lord Dacre, at his 

 park in Sussex, and of Sir Matthew Decker, at Richmond. " I have seen 

 hedges," Evelyn observes, " or, if you will, stout walls of holly, 20 feet in 

 height, kept upright ; and the gilded sort budded low, and in two or three 

 places one above another, shorn and fashioned into columns and pilasters, 

 architecturally shaped, and at due distance ; than which nothing can pos- 

 sibly be more pleasant, the berry adorning the intercolumniations with scarlet 

 festoons, and encarpa." In Scotland, the most celebrated holly hedges were 



