TORRE Y A 



Vol. 25 No. 5 



September-October, 1925 



HOLLY AND LAUREL 



P'or a long time it has been evident to those of us who live 

 in large cities that unless something was done to save the Ameri- 

 can Holly, there would soon be none left to be saved. Many 

 of us stopped buying Holly, at least ten years ago, and have 

 used artificial or natural substitutes. Excellent imitations of 

 Poinsettia and Holly may be had, and these do not shrivel 

 and grow shabby so soon, and may be used again and again in 

 different combinations. Many of the large shops use artificial 

 wreaths because they keep better than the natural ones, look 

 handsomer, and may be used again another year. Garlands 

 of laurel are not used as much as formerly because the use of 

 ropes of laurel and ground pine has been so cheapened and abused 

 that people of good taste no longer take pleasure in this form of 

 decoration. But that there is entirely too much laurel roping 

 still used cannot be denied. However, we may take comfort 

 and consolation in the fact that, though there is no good sub- 

 stitute for the laurel, we are told by the State foresters of Con- 

 necticut that it may be grown with profit as a crop, and that on 

 many rocky and waste pastures in that state it will pay better 

 than any other crop. 



Mrs. Farrand states in her article on "Christmas Greens" 

 that "we are most of us to blame through ignorance, because 

 we do not know that one thin and poor yard of laurel-roping 

 uses up at least twenty growths of one year each, and that 

 over thirty are needed to make the pretty, thick strands we all 

 have liked to buy. A good wreath of Holly is made up of an 

 average of two years' growth. The cases_^of Holly sold in all 

 the large florists' shops and market at Christmas time measure 

 approximately three feet long and two feet wide and at least 

 two feet high: each of these boxes contain a minimum of six 

 hundred years of growth. It is therefore not difficult to under- 

 stand why Holly has been practically exterminated from the 

 State of Connecticut and is growing difificult to find in New 

 Jersey and nearby States." 



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