British Wild Flowers and Trees 271 



quite so good as the wild kind when old. In the 

 garden little thought is given to the Yew, and it is 

 crowded among shrubs ; while in graveyards the roots 

 are cut by digging, so that one seldom sees it in 

 its fine character when old, which is very beautiful. 

 The Golden Yew is a form of it, and there are other 

 shght variegations which are interesting from a merely 

 garden point of view. The Irish Yew is a well-known 

 form; its prim shape is too often seen. Other seedhng 

 variations of the common Yew are better than the 

 Irish variety. 



After the ever-precious Yew, the best of our ever- 

 green trees is the Holly, which in no country attains 

 the beauty it does in our own ; no evergreen brought 

 over the sea is so valuable not only in its native form, 

 often attaining forty feet even on the hills, but in the 

 almost innumerable varieties raised from it, many of 

 them being the best of all variegated shrubs in their 

 silver and gold variegation ; in fruit, too, it is the most 

 beautiful of evergreens. Not merely as a garden tree 

 is it precious, but as a most delightful shelter around 

 fields for stock, in paddocks and places which we wish 

 to shelter. A big wreath of undipped Holly on the 

 cold sides of fields is the best protection, and a grove 

 of Holly north of any place we want to shelter is the 

 best thing we can plant. As to the garden, we may 

 make beautiful evergreen gardens of the forms of Holly 

 alone ; the only thing we have to fear are rabbits, which 

 when numerous make Holly difficult to establish by 



