454 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



height to be considered a tree ; but is so prolific 

 in suckers and low shoots as always to have the 

 character of a shrub. It forms a dense and yet 

 broken and picturesque mass of a very fine deep 

 green, inclining to olive, and is abundantly 

 covered with berries, which are dark purple, or 

 black, when ripe. Oil is obtained from the 

 latter by boiling water. Both the leaves and the 

 berries have a sweet fragrant odour, and an aro- 

 matic astringent taste ; and the oil, which is of 

 a yellowish green colour, has a strong but simi- 

 lar odour and taste. Water distilled from the 

 leaves is embued with prussic acid, and on this 

 account becomes poisonous. 



The Royal Bay (I. indica), grows in the 

 Canary islands and in Virginia. The wood is of 

 a yellow colour, and rather light, and is used for 

 buildings and for furniture. In Madeira it is 

 called vigmatico, and is probably the same wood 

 which is imported into England under the name 

 of Madeira mahogany ; indeed it is hardly to be 

 distinguished from mahogany, only it is of a 

 lighter colour. The Portuguese laurel, a com- 

 mon shrub in our gardens, we have already 

 alluded to under the head of fruit trees, as it 

 belongs to the same family as the plum and 

 cherry. It is also a favourite evergreen, and 

 possesses the same narcotic qualities as the laiu-els, 

 prussic acid being contained in the leaves. 



The Red Bay (I. caroUniensisJ. This tree 

 is found in the lower part of the state of Vir- 

 ginia, and in the Carolinas and Georgia, in which 

 places it often rises to the height of sixty and 

 seventy feet. The leaves and flowers bear a 

 close resemblance to the common bay, and have 

 the same peculiar odour when bruised. The 

 wood is of a beautiful rose colour, is strong, and 

 has a fine compact grain, and is susceptible of a 

 beautiful polish. Before the general introduc- 

 tion of mahogany, this wood was much employed 

 in the construction of furniture. It is now, 

 when it can be procured, employed along with 

 red cedar in ship building, for which purpose its 

 strength and durability well fit it. 



The Holly (ilea:). Natural family rhamni ; 

 tetrandria, tetragynia, of LinnjEus. Of the holly 

 there are sixteen species, and the varieties pro- 

 duced, distinguished chiefly by the leaves, are 

 very numerous. 



The Common Holly (ilex cequifolium), is very 

 abundantly difiiised, beingfound in warm climates 

 and in cold, in most countries of Europe, and in 

 many of Asia and America. Hollies are abun- 

 dant in some of the imcultivated parts of the 

 southern counties of England ; and they are also 

 to he met with in the Highlands of Scotland, in 

 places where one could hardly suppose they had 

 been planted. 



Were it not that the holly grows very slowly 

 when young, and cannot be safely transplanted 

 virhen it has attained a considerable size, it would 



make better hedge-rows than the hawthorn. 

 When allowed time, and not destroyed by short- 

 ening the top-shoot, the holly grows up to a 

 large tree. Some at the HoUywalk, near Fren- 

 sham, in Surrey, are mentioned by Bradley as 

 having grown to the height of sixty feet ; and 

 old hollies of thirty and forty feet, with clean 

 trunks of considerable diameter, are to be met 

 with in many parts of the country. 



A holly hedge is a pleasing object, though it 

 is too often clipped into formal shapes. Evelyn 

 had a magnificent hedge of this sort, at his gar- 

 dens at Say's Court, which he planted at the 

 suggestion of Peter the Great, who resided in 

 his house when he worked in the dock-yards at 

 Deptford. He thus rapturously speaks of this 

 fine fence : " Is there under heaven a more glo- 

 rious and refreshing object of the kind than an 

 impregnable hedge, of about four hundred feet 

 in length, nine feet high, and five in diameter, 

 which I can show in my new raised gardens at 

 Say's Court (thanks to the Czar of Muscovy;, 

 at any time of the year, glittering with its armed 

 and varnished leaves, the taller standards, at 

 orderly distances, blushing with their natural 

 coral." The largest holly hedge in Scotland is 

 at Tynningham, near Dunbar, planted by a 

 former eaid of Haddington, author of a treatise 

 on fruit trees. It has for many years past been 

 left uncut, and now presents a noble phalanx of 

 deep shining gi'een leaves, and numerous spiry 

 tops, with spikes of coral berries. 



The timber of the holly is very white and 

 compact, which adapts it well for many pur- 

 poses in the arts ; though, as it is very retentive 

 of its sap, and warps in consequence, it requires 

 to be well dried and seasoned before being used. 

 It takes a durable colour, black, or almost any 

 other ; and hence it is much used by cabinet- 

 makers in forming what are technically called 

 strings and borders in ornamental works. When 

 properly stained black, its colour and lustre are 

 not much inferior to those of ebony. For vari- 

 ous purposes of the turner, and for the manu- 

 facture of what is called Tunbridge ware, it is 

 also much used ; and next to box and pear tree, 

 it is the best wood for engraving upon, as it is 

 close and stands the tool well. The slowness of 

 its growth, however, renders it an expensive 

 timber. The bark of the holly contains a great 

 deal of viscid matter; and when macerated in 

 water, fermented, and then separated fi'om the 

 fibres, it forms bird-lime. 



Martin first discovered the difference of sexes 

 in the holly, some being male, others female, and 

 others hermaphrodite. It is a tree of great lon- 

 gevity, and will grow in any soil not very wet ; 

 but it thrives best in a dry deep loam. The 

 holly is produced from seed. The berries being 

 gathered in November, and mixed with sand in 

 heaps, in the open garden, till they are divested 



