HOLLY-TREE. 363 



ants many of considerable beauty, though seeming to us 

 degenerate ; such are the gold and silver edged, and a 

 strange variety produced by culture, with spines on the 

 disc of each leaf, called the hedgehog. And yet, how- 

 ever varying, the wood is similar in all. It is used in 

 veneering, and is stained black to imitate ebony, for knife- 

 handles, and cogs for mill-wheels. Strange to say, my bark, 

 when fermented, and washed from the woody fibres, is 

 made into bird-lime ; but this is an appropriation over which 

 I have no control. 



Needham Forest is one of our favourite localities, as also 

 the north side of the Wrekin, in Shropshire. We grow 

 in woods and hedges and on windy heaths, beacon trees, 

 that may be seen at a great distance, and serving to guide 

 the traveller ofttimes in a wild and pathless country. 

 Surely we may boast concerning our surpassing beauty, 

 for no evergreen can vie with us. Our highly polished 

 leaves shine like mirrors, and reflect every wandering sun- 

 beam ; and then our clusters of scarlet berries ! Neither 



