46 



ILEX. 



houses at Christmas, with sprigs of Holly, is well known 

 to our readers, and appears to be of very ancient date : 

 Dr. Chandler supposes it may have been derived from the 

 Druids, who are said to have decorated their dwellings, 

 during winter, with evergreens, " that the sylvan spirits 

 might repair to them, and remain unnipped with frost 

 and cold winds, until a milder season had renewed the 

 foliage of their darling abodes ;" but it is more likely to 

 have been first adopted by the early Christians, at Rome, 

 where the Holly had long been used, as an emblem of good 

 wishes, in the great festival of the Saturnalia, celebrated 

 about that period of the year. 



The varieties and subvarieties of the Holly are very 

 numerous, but the two most deserving of propagation are, 

 uncmestionably, the White-edged leaved Holly (/. aqui- 

 albo marginatum), and the Gold-edged leaved Holly (/. 

 aquiaureo marginatum) ; these two are, at all times, 

 highly ornamental, and, contrary to what is observed in 

 most other variegated trees, have no sickly or unhealthy 

 aspect, bat g-row as freely, if not more so, as the common 

 species. They are propagated by budding and grafting 

 upon the common stock at the usual time for these opera- 

 tions ; sometimes cuttings are used, but these, independent 

 of their not striking freely, rarely make such good plants, 

 and, besides, are much longer before they are large enough 

 to plant permanently out. 



In severe winters we have found the hares and rabbits 

 very injurious to the Hollies, and in the long-continued 

 storm of January and February, 1838, many plants of 

 as large a diameter as three or four inches, were killed 

 to the surface of the ground by having their bark stripped 

 off as high as the animals could reach. We are now 



