402 THE HOLLY. 
allowed to remain undisturbed. In open weather during the 
following winter, the seeds should be sown into rich, dry soil, 
of an open quality, partially shaded. Such a situation as 
admits either the morning or the evening sunshine is suitable. 
The beds should be four feet wide, and the cover about half 
an inch deep. In sowing it is not necessary to separate the 
seeds from the mixture of sand. One bushel, half seed half 
sand, is usually allowed to eight or ten lineal yards of a bed. 
A proportion of the plants will break through the ground in 
the month of May ensuing, but it frequently happens that a 
portion which has not become sufficiently decomposed will 
remain in the ground dormant until the end of the second 
spring after sowing, which frequently forms the principal 
crop, the success of which depends greatly on the openness of 
the ground. In this case the springing of the seeds is sixteen 
or eighteen months after the time of sowing; and as the 
ground is not disturbed during that period, where it is of a 
clayey nature it is apt to become so consolidated that the 
young plants perish from being unable to penetrate it with 
their roots, hence the necessity of the soil being naturally free 
and soft. Another mode of growing the holly, which I have 
found very simple and successful, is to sow the seeds in the 
usual way as soon as they are gathered from the tree, cropping 
the ground at same time, or in spring, with any annual crop 
of plants or vegetables, till the holly begins to vegetate ; but 
even then the holly seeds do not vegetate equally,—some will 
remain in the ground dormant for two, and often, to some 
extent, for three summers. After two summers’ -growth the 
young plants should be transplanted into nursery lines. 
The best time for transplanting hollies is September, and 
moist weather should be preferred, particularly for their being 
removed for the first time; the lines should be about one 
foot apart, and the plants a few inches asunder in the lines. 
They should afterwards be transplanted every second or third 
year, which serves to keep their roots in a proper state, and 
to afford the plants sufficient space as they advance in size. 
It is common to recommend their removal every other year, 
