HOLLY FAMILY 



The custom of employing holly and other plants for decorative purposes at 

 Christmas, is one of considerable antiquity, and has been regarded as a survival 

 of the usages of the Roman Saturnalia, or of an old Teutonic practice of hang- 

 ing the interior of dwellings with evergreens as a refuge for sylvan spirits from 

 the inclemency of the weather. — f-tjcyc. Britanntca. 



In English poetry and English stories the Holly is insep- 

 arably connected with the merry-making and greetings which 

 gather around the Christmas tide. The custom is also ours, 

 and a few days before Christmas the shops are filled with 

 holly and mistletoe for the annual decoration of homes and 

 churches. 



The severity of our climate forbids the European Holly, 

 with its deep green, glossy foliage and coral berries, to live 

 here except upon a most precarious footing. But our Amer- 

 ican Holly makes an excellent second in the class where the 

 European is first, for it very closely resembles the foreign 

 species. The leaves are similar in outline and toothed and 

 bristled very much in the same way, but they are a paler 

 green, and although the surface is polished and shining it 

 does not in brilliancy quite equal its European cousin. 



The American Holly is a handsome tree and worthy of far 

 more attention from landscape gardeners than it gets. Pos- 

 sibly the objection to it is its slowness of growth. The tree 

 is low, the branches almost horizontal, and the gray bark in 

 old trees becomes the willing host of great numbers of gray 

 and white and bluish lichens which make the tree look ven- 

 erable before its time. Its pretty white flowers appear in 

 clusters either in the axils of the leaves or scattered along 

 the young shoots. The berries are scarlet, contain four 

 stony seeds and remain on the tree into the winter. The 

 flesh of the berries is so thin and aromatic that the birds do 

 not seem to care for it. 



The Holly is usually propagated by seeds, or young plants 

 are taken from the woods. As the seeds do not germinate 

 until the second year, transplanting the wild young trees is 

 the best way of obtaining them. This should be done in 

 the spring before growth begins. 



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