HOLLY FAMILY 



The custom of employing holly and other plants for decorative purposes at 

 Christmas, is one of considerable antiquity, and has heen regarded as a sur\ i\al 

 of the usages of the fioman Saturnalia, or of an old Teutonic practice ol hang- 

 ing the interior o( dwcllnigs with e\'ergreens as a refuge lor sylvan spirits Iroin 

 the inclemency of the weatlicr. — / myc. Brtiannua. 



hi English poetry and English stories the Holly is insep- 

 arably connected with the merry-making and greetings which 

 gather around the Christmas tide. The ctistom is also ours, 

 and a few days before Christmas the shops are filled with 

 holly and mistletoe for the annual decoi'ation of homes and 

 churches. 



The severity of our climate forbids the European Holly, 

 with its deep green, gloss}' foliage and coral berries, to live 

 here except upon a most precarious footing. But our Amer- 

 ican Holly makes an excellent second in the class where the 

 European is first, for it very closely resembles the foreign 

 species. The leaves are similar in outline and toothed and 

 bristled very much in the same way, but they are a paler 

 green, and althotigh the surface is polished and shining it 

 does not in brilliancy quite etinal its European cousin. 



The American Holly is a handsome tree and worthy of far 

 more attention from landscape gai'deners than it gets. Pos- 

 sibly the objection to it is its slowness of growth. The tree 

 is low, the branches almost horizontal, and the gray bark in 

 old trees Ijecomes the willing host of great numbers of gray 

 and white and bluish lichens which make the tree look ven- 

 erable before its time. Its pretty white flowers appear in 

 clusters either in the axils of the leaves or scattered along 

 the young siioots. The berries are scaidet, contain four 

 stony seeds and remain on the tree intt) the winter. The 

 flesh of the berries is so thin and aromatic that the birds do 

 not seem to care for it. 



The Holly is usually propagated by seeds, or young plants 

 are taken from the woods. As the seeds do not germinate 

 until the second year, transplanting the wild ycumg trees is 

 the best way of obtaining tliem. This should be done in 

 the spring before growth begins. 



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