202 THE HOLLY. 



suggestive of disease, an idea wliicli is associated with most 

 other trees which have their leaves blotched with yellow. 

 In winter, when flowers are scarce, the garden and 

 shrubbery are much indebted to the more showy varieties 

 for the double contrast afforded by their leaves and berries. 

 They are propagated by grafting on the common sort, and 

 attain an equal size. 



Tlie berries, though eaten by birds, are poisonous to 

 human beings ; a fact which ought to be made known to 

 children. 



The uses of the Holly in its natural state are scarcely 

 worth notice. Deer will eat the leaves in winter, and 

 sheep thrive on them. Eats and mice occasionally injure 

 the young trees' by gnawing the bark, especially when the 

 ground is covered with snow. It is infested by but few 

 insects : the azure-blue butterfly {Polyommatus Argiolus) 

 delights to hover about it, and settle on it ; and another 

 small insect passes the larva and pupa stages of its 

 existence between the upper and under cuticle of the leaf ; 

 but, with these exceptions, it is exempt from insect 

 depredations. 



The wood of the Holly is hard, compact, and of a 

 remarkably even substance throughout. Except towards 

 the centre of very old trees, it is beautifully white, and 

 being susceptible of a very high polish, is much prized for 

 ornamental ware. It is often stained blue, green, red, or 

 black ; when of the latter colour, its principal use is as a 

 substitute for ebony, in the handles of metal tea-pots. 

 JNIathematical instruments are also made of it, and it has 

 even been employed in Avood-engraving, instead of box. 

 The wood of the silver-striped variety is said to be whiter 

 than that of the common kind. Of the bark, stripped 

 from the young shoots, boiled and suffered to ferment, 

 birdlime is made; but the greater quantity of this sub- 

 stance used in England is imported from Turkey. 



In the north of England the Holly was formerly so 

 abundant about the lakes, that birdlime was made from it 



