EVERGREEN ORNAMENTAL TREES. 237 



sy foliage, and bright coral berries, whicli hang on for 

 a long time, are seen enlivening the pleasure-grounds and 

 shrubberies throughout the whole of that leafless and in- 

 active period in vegetation — winter. It is also in our mother 

 tongue, inseparably connected with the delightful associa- 

 tions of the merry Christmas gambols and feastings, when 

 both the churches and the dwelling houses, are decorated 

 with its boughs. We have much to regret, therefore, in the 

 severity of our winters, which will not permit the European 

 Holly to flourish in the middle or eastern states, as a hardy 

 tree. South of Philadelphia, it may become acclimated; but 

 it appears to suffer greatly farther north. 



A beautiful succedanum, however, may we believe, be 

 found in the xVmerican Holly, {Ilex opaca.) which indeed 

 very closely resembles the foreign species in almost every 

 particular. The leaves are waved or irregular in surface 

 and outline, though not so much so as those of the latter, 

 and their colour is a much lighter shade of green. Like 

 those of the foreign plant, they are armed on the edges wnth 

 thorny prickles, and the surface is brilliant and polished. 

 The American Holly is seen in the greatest perfection on the 

 eastern shore of Maryland and Virginia, and the lower part 

 of New- Jersey. There it thrives best upon loose, dry and 

 gravelly soils. Michaux says it is also common through all 

 the extreme southern states, and in West Tennessee, in which 

 latter places it abounds on the margins of shady swamps, where 

 the soil is cool and fertile. In such spots it often reaches for- 

 ty feet in height, and twelve or fifteen inches in diameter. 



Although the growth of the Holly is slow, yet it is always 

 beautiful ; and we regret that the American sort, which may 

 be easily brought into cultivation, is so very rarely seen in 

 our gardens or grounds. The seeds are easily procured ; and 



