THE HOLLY 13 
The Holly will grow in any soil in which water is 
not absolutely stagnant; but it prefers a rather dry 
sandy loam, and, whilst it not only “outdares cold 
winter’s ire,’ but seems to flourish in the bleakest 
situations, it does not do well under the shade of 
other trees. It is generally from ten to forty feet 
in height, and not more than two or three in girth; 
but Hollies at Bleak Hill, Shropshire, are stated to 
attain a circumference of fourteen feet. The slow- 
growing, even and hard-grained wood is, except at 
the centre, as white as ivory, and is valued for turning 
and inlaying. It stains well, and is therefore used in 
place of ebony for the black handles of tea-pots, while 
for engraving it is perhaps second only to boxwood. 
One of the great charms of the Holly is its silvery 
bark. Smooth on the old stems as in the Beech, but 
without the glossy sheen of the beautiful Birch, it yet 
affords a most pleasing contrast to the dark foliage. 
The young twigs are light green, and slightly downy. 
It is the foliage, however, contrasting alike with 
the bright greens of surrounding trees in summer, and 
with their leafless branches in winter, that gives the 
chief picturesque value to this “ incomparable tree,” as 
Evelyn terms this handsomest of our native ever- 
greens. The glossy green leaves are associated in 
Shakespeare’s lyric with the pleasures of forest life :— 
‘*Heigh-ho! the green Holly! 
This life is most jolly.” 
Southey’s well-known poem has popularised the 
fact that. the leaves on the lower boughs are more 
spinous than those on the upper, suggesting a reason 
