HOLLY. 283 



he had observed the flight of birds that pointed 

 out the spot whereon the gods had fixed for 

 its erection ; and that these trees were stand- 

 ing in his own time, and must, therefore, 

 have been upwards of 1,200 years old. He 

 also tells us, that there was a holly-tree then 

 growing near the Vatican, in Rome, on which 

 was fixed a plate of brass, with an inscription 

 engraven in Tuscan letters ; and that this 

 tree was older than Rome itself, which must 

 have been then more than 800 years (book xvi. 

 chap. 44.). This author notices a holly-tree, 

 in Tusculum, the trunk of which measured 

 thirty-five feet in circumference, and which 

 sent out ten branches of such magnitude that 

 each might pass for a tree ; he says, this 

 single tree alone resembled a small wood. 



The holly grows to a considerable size, 

 even as a timber tree , in this country, when 

 permitted to stand. Cole tells us, in his 

 " Paradise of Plants," that he knew a tree of 

 this kind which grew in an orchard ; and the 

 owner, he says, " cut it down, and caused it 

 to be sawed into boards, and made himself 

 thereof a coffin ; and if I mistake not, left 

 enough to make his wife one also. Both the 

 parties were very corpulent ; and, therefore, 

 you may imagine the tree could not be 

 small." 



