THE HOLLY 11 
unlucky to bring it into a house before Christmas 
Eve; in Derbyshire it is said that, according as the 
Holly brought into the house at this season be 
prickly or smooth, the husband or the wife will be 
master during the year. In some western counties 
the boughs removed from churches are treasured 
like the palms at Passion-tide, for luck throughout 
the year following; and in Germany, like the tapers 
used at Candlemas, they are looked upon as a sure 
protection against thunder. 
The name Holly is probably derived from the root 
hul, or kul, connected with the Latin cul’men, a peak, 
and culmus, having reference to the same character 
as its modern specific name aquifolium, or “ needle- 
leaved.” Though known as Stechpalme in modern 
German, it was formerly in that language termed 
Hulis, Hulst, or Hiilse. William Turner, in the 
“Libellus de re MHerbaria” (1538), his earliest 
botanical work, speaking of it under the head of 
Ruscus, says, “ Procerum aut galli housum, angli an 
holy tre et an Huluar tre nominant, hec etiam arbor, 
si Ruellio credimus, ilex aquifolia dicitur, @ cujus 
corticibus ipse admodum puer viscum confeci.” 
“But the French call the tall kind housum; the 
English, an holy tre and an Hulvar tre. This tree 
also, if we believe Ruellius, is called Ilex aquifolia, 
from the bark of which I have formerly, when a boy, 
made birdlime.” The old French houlw still retains 
its Teutonic form in the modern hou, and the name 
hulver is in use in the Eastern Counties, not to 
mention the name knee-hul for the Butcher’s Broom 
(Rus‘cus aculea‘tus); whilst many a modern school- 
