14 FAMILIAR TREES 
in accordance with that newer teleology which has 
been evoked by the teaching of Darwin. The 
spines of the lower branches do indeed protect them 
from cattle, though not from deer; whilst a sort of 
innate tendency to spinousness must account for the 
one terminal point for the upper leaves. Another 
poetical reason has been given for its general exemp- 
tion from attack—namely, that, “ unknown before, the 
Holly sprang up in perfection and beauty beneath the 
footsteps of Christ when He first trod the earth, and 
that, though man has forgotten its attributes, the 
beasts all reverence it, and are never known to injure 
it.” Nevertheless, the Holly bas other enemies 
besides the deer, for a species of aphis (A‘phis 7'licis) 
lives on the young shoots, and a fly (Phytomy’za 
ilicis) burrows, when in the larval stage, under the 
epidermis of the leaves. 
From May to August the tree bears clusters of 
small, wax-like, white flowers, which seem peculiarly 
attractive to bees ; and, as the species is almost dic- 
cious—that is, has on one tree flowers in nearly all 
of which the ovary is aborted, and on another those 
in which the four stamens bear hardly any pollen, it 
is by these insects that its fertilisation is mainly 
effected. This is also, of course, the reason why 
certain trees, being male, never produce berries ; 
though an opinion has been expressed that male 
Hollies become female with age, a point deserving 
further attention. Many of the variegated forms 
grown in gardens produce little or no fruit, though 
one of these (var. laurifo'lia) bears a profusion of 
fragrant flowers. This absence of fruit argues a 
