582 EVERGREEN ^£ E E S AND S BR UBS. 



evergreen, and grows in moist cool soils irom thirty to eighty feet 

 in height. At the north it can only be grown ^s -a tub-shrub to be 

 wintered under glass. The leaves are similar to Sbose of the 

 rhododendron family. Flowers single, white, four inches in "diaime- 

 ter, and fragrant. 



The Pubescent Gordonia, G. pubescens, is a smaller deciduous 

 species, becoming a tree from thirty to fifty feet high in the Gulf 

 States, and diminishing to a shrub farther north. A little more 

 hardy than the preceding, but unsuited to open-ground planting 

 north of the Carolinas. . Its large white flowers appear from May 

 to August, and are exceedingly fragrant. It does best in a cool 

 moist soil and sheltered situation. 



THE HOLLY. Ilex. 



The hollies are mostly evergreens, and embrace species of all 

 sizes from small shrubs to large trees ; and are natives of both 

 continents. They grow slowly and live long. The name holly is 

 supposed to be a corruption of holy, and the branches are always 

 used in England to decorate dwellings and churches during the 

 holydays of Christmas. The species thrive better than most trees 

 in the shade and smoke of cities. 



The European Holly. Ilex aquifolium. — In the British 

 islands this holly forms a very compact conical tree twenty to thirty 

 feet high. Its leaves are glossy, deeply scolloped, and armed with 

 many sharp points or spines. It bears clipping well, forms the 

 most impenetrable of hedges in the moist mild climate of England, 

 and is more free from the attacks of insects than other hedge trees ;. 

 but it endures neither the winters or summers of our middle and 

 northern States. South of Washington, in shady situations, it. 

 sometimes develops its beauty. The varieties of this holly are very 

 numerous, and vary much from each other ; and it is observed of 

 the variegated-leaved sorts that they are quite as healthy in their 

 appearance as the normal form. The most marked varieties are 

 the smooth-edge-leaved, I. a. marginatum, having pointed-oval 

 leaves with smooth edges, without prickles, thick and leathery ; the 



