116 FAMILIAR TREES 



years old, close on fifty feet high and four feet in 

 diameter; and those at Mamhead, Devonshire, one 

 of which is eighty-five feet high and eleven feet 

 in the circumference of its trunk; whilst another, 

 only fifty-five feet high, has the extreme girth of 

 twenty- two feet. There are also excellent specimens 

 of this species at Kew and at Windsor, under 

 one of the latter of which her Majesty Queen 

 Victoria was very fond of breakfasting. 



The leaves vary considerably in outline in seed- 

 ling varieties, in one of which, known as latifolia, 

 they are no less than five inches long and nearly 

 three in breadth, though generally not half these 

 dimensions. They are mostly of an ovate-oblong 

 form, with an acute point and an unnotched 

 margin ; but they are sometimes serrate, irregularly 

 toothed, like the Holly, or crisped or wrinkled at 

 the edge. Of a very dark glossy green on their 

 upper surfaces, they are more or less hoary be- 

 neath ; but their stiff leathery consistency prevents 

 them from turning lightly in the breeze, so that 

 it must be admitted that the tree is sombre in 

 its general effect. Unfortunately, too, almost every 

 leaf is discoloured by the attacks of the larva of 

 the moth Lithocoll'etis messaniel'la, which causes 

 them to drop off somewhat prematurely. Their 

 perfectly smooth surface, and often inrolled edges, 

 give the leaves, however, a lustrous appearance, 

 and it is remarkable that when any of them are 

 spinous, it is, as in the Holly, those nearest the 

 ground that are so. 



The tree flowers in May, the male flowers beino- 



