10 FAMILIAR TREES 
sanction as the Holly and the Yew. The spinous 
leaves and blood-red berries of the former might well 
be taken by the Christian symbolist as a mystic fore- 
shadowing of the Passion at the celebration of the 
Nativity, and the name of the tree, which originally 
referred mainly to its pointed leaves, may have 
suggested something holy. 
Our poets naturally abound in allusions to the 
bright green of the leaves’ and the crimson of the 
berries of the Holly, associating it generally with 
Ivy and Yew; but in the following curious carol, 
dating from the year 1456, and preserved among 
the Harleian manuscripts, the Holly is accorded 
the pre-eminence: 
“Nay, Ivy! nay, it shall not be I wys; 
Let Holy hafe the maystry, as the maner ys. 
Holy stond in the halle, fayre to behold ; 
Ivy stond without the dore ; she ys full sore a-cold.” 
“Holy and hys mery men they dawnsyn and they syng, 
Ivy and hur maydenys they wepyn and they wryng. 
Ivy hath a kybe*; she laghtit with the cold, 
So mot they all hafe that wyth Ivy bold. 
“ Holy hath berys, as red as any Rose, 
The foster and the hunters kepe hem from the does. 
Ivy hath berys as black as any slo; 
Ther com the oule and ete hem as she go. 
“Holy hath byrdys, a ful fayre flok, 
The Nyghtyngale, the Poppyngy, the gayntyl Lavyrok. 
Good Ivy! what byrdys ast thou? 
Non but the howlet, that cryes ‘How! how!’” 
Many popular superstitions still linger round the 
use of Holly at Christmas. In Rutland it is deemed 
* Kybe, chilblain. 
