62 



THE HOLLY. 



and are protected from cattle and other injury 

 by a ditch on either side. In Evelyn's time the 

 art of the nurseryman was scarcely known, and 

 he recommends that they should be picked out 

 of the woods while young, before they have 

 been cropped by sheep, and when planted where 

 they are destined to remain, to be shorn and 

 fashioned into columns and pilasters, architection- 

 ally shaped, and at due distance ; than w^hich 

 nothing can be more pleasant, the berry adorning 

 the intercolumniations with scarlet festoons." 

 N0W3 however, that they may be purchased at 

 seven shillings a thousand, few will think it 

 worth while to adopt the laborious process 

 v/hich he recommends : architectional *" columns 

 have long ago disappeared, and given place to 

 a style of gardening more in accordance with the 

 proprieties of nature. 



The Holly will grow in almost any soil, pro- 

 vided it is not too wet, but attains the largest 

 size in rich, sandy loam. The most favourable 

 s^ituation seems to be a thin scattered wood 

 of Oaks, in the intervals of which it grows up, 

 at once sheltered and partially shaded. 



Beckmann, in his history of the discovery of 

 alum, relates the following incident: — John di 

 Castro, son of the celebrated lawyer Paul di 

 Castro, had an opportunity at Constantinople, 

 where he traded in Italian cloths and sold dyed 

 stuffs, of making himself acquainted with the 

 method of boiling alum. He was there at the 

 time when the city fell into the hands of the 

 Turks (1453) ; and after this unfortunate event, 

 by which he lost all his property, he returned to 

 his own country. Pursuing there his researches 



