THE HOLM OAK 115 



when eighty years old. It is, no doubt, to this 

 slow growth that the brown heart-wood of this 

 species owes its close texture, hardness, and high 

 specific gravity, weighing, as it does, as much as 

 seventy pounds per cubic foot. As our photo- 

 micrograph shows, the evergreen character and 

 slow growth of this species are represented in its 

 wood in its greater density and in the uniformly 

 distributed vessels. 



Though we cannot altogether believe the stories 

 of its longevity told by Pliny, there can be no 

 doubt that this tree, which, under the name of 

 Ilex, is so commonly referred to by Virgil and 

 Horace, does live to a great age. Pliny would 

 have us believe that in his time — in the first 

 century, that is, of our era — a Holm Oak was 

 still in existence on the Vatican, in the trunk of 

 which Etruscan letters of brass were inlaid, indi- 

 cating that the tree was older than Rome itself; 

 whilst three other specimens were still growing 

 at Tibur which were in existence when Tiburtus 

 founded that city, ages even before the foundation 

 of Rome ! 



The Ilex seems, from the reference made to it 

 by Gerard and Clusius, to have been introduced 

 into this country about the middle of the six- 

 teenth century, the oldest specimens in England 

 being probably those at Wollaton Hall, Notts, one 

 of which has a circumference of over fifteen feet. 

 Other examples are those at Harefield Place, 

 said to have been planted at the suggestion of 

 Evelyn ; that at Fulham Palace, nearly two hundred 



