1902 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. FART 11 J. 



Bridge, and tlie other in the private garden at Whitehall, having lesser leaves 

 than the former. The latter of these," he adds, "is yet standing, and every 

 \ ear bears small acorns which I could never observe come to any maturity." 

 (GYr. Emac, p. 1343.) Parkinson, in 1640, mentions the same tree as 

 standing " in the king's privie garden at Whitehall;" and Evelyn, in 1678, 

 speaks of it as a " sickly imp of more than fourscore years' growth." Gerard 

 calls it the great skarlet oke ; but Parkinson corrects him, and applies the 

 name of the scarlet holm oke only to the true species, Q. coccifera, or, as 

 he calls it, Q. coccigera. Q. Plex was called the holm oak on account of 

 the resemblance of the leaves of some of the varieties to those of the holly ; 

 though this term is more applicable to Q. gramuntia. Evelyn seems to have 

 been one of the first to recommend the planting of this tree generally for 

 hedges and standards ; but the most extensive planter of the ilex was, doubt- 

 less, " that curious gentleman, Robert Balle, Esq., F.R.S., of Mamhead, in 

 Devonshire," who raised some thousands of these trees from acorns, and 

 transplanted them with so much success and judgment, that Bradley, writing 

 about the beginning of the last century, says that some of them, in a few 

 years, " had grown to a considerable greatness of stature." Some account of 

 these trees will be found in the Gardener's Magazine, vol. xi. ; by which it 

 appears that the largest of them, which grows in a red loamy soil, on a sub- 

 stratum of redstone conglomerate, about 600 ft. above the level of the sea, 

 was, in 1835, 85ft. high, with a trunk lift, in circumference; another 

 was 70ft. high, with a trunk 14ft. in circumference; and a third was 55ft. 

 high, with a trunk 22 ft. in circumference. The Q. /Hex has ripened fruit 

 at Marino, and other places, in the vicinity of Dublin ; and it has attained 

 a considerable size in Scotland, as will appear by our Statistics. It is much 

 planted in France ; and is by far the commonest evergreen in Italy, where the 

 monotonous character which it gives to many of the celebrated gardens in 

 the neighbourhood of Rome and Florence has obtained for it from Forsyth 

 the appellation of " the eternal ilex." In the north of France, and in Ger- 

 many, it is seldom met with except in green-houses ; and it is also a green- 

 house shrub in New York. 



Poetical and historical Allusions. Most of the ancient writers, as well sacred 

 as profane, appear to make a difference between the ilex and the common 

 oak. According to Lowth, the teil tree mentioned by Isaiah (vi. 13.) was an 

 ilex. Goodwyn, in his Jewish Antiquities, p. 75,, observes that tne holm 

 oak was an object of worship among the Etruscans. Modern poets, particu- 

 larly those of the south of Europe, also make occasional allusions to this 

 tree. In Spain, Garcilasso says, — 



— ' " Hast thou forgotten, too, 

 Childhood's sweet sports, whence first my passion grew ; 

 When from the bowery ilex I shook down 

 Its autumn fruit, which on the craig's high crown 

 We tasted, sitting chattering side by side 'i 

 Who climb'd trees swinging o'er the hoarse deep tide, 

 And pour'd into thy lap, or at thy feet, 

 Their kernel'd nuts, the sweetest of the sweet ?" Wikfen's Garcilasso, p. 'Z\b. 



Garcilasso, in another poem, mentions both the oak and the ilex : — 



" But, in calm idlesse laid, 



Supine in the cool shade 

 Of oak or ilex, beech or pendent pine, 



Sees his flocks feeding stray, 



Whitening a length of way, 

 Or numbers up his homeward tending kine." Ibid., p. 198. 



Properties and Uses. The sap wood of the Q. Plex is whitish ; but the 

 heart, or perfect, wood, is of a brown colour, very close-grained, heavy, and 

 very hard ; BO much so, indeed, that, according to Parkinson, it is "not easie 

 for an axe, hut for B saw, to cut it." (Theat. Hot., p. 1394.) It weighs 70 lb. to 

 the cubic foot, and takes a fine polish; but twists and splits a great deal in 

 , like most other hard and heavy woods. It is of great duration, and 

 ,\ considerable flexibility; for which reason, in Languedoc, helves of 

 hatchets and other instruments are made of it, and are found to proserve their 



