THE HOLLY. 



67 



in a heap of earth for a year previously to being 

 sown. 



One of the finest specimens of Holly now exist- 

 ing in England, is mentioned by Grigor, as grow- 

 ing at Spring Grove, Norfolk, it is about sixty 

 feet high, with a bole of five and a-half feet in 

 circumference, and twenty-five in length: but 

 others of nearly equal dimensions are to be met 

 with here and there. 



On the glebe of St. Gluvias Vicarage, Cornwall, 

 stands another exceedingly fine specimen. It is in 

 form a pyramid, thirty feet in height ; the lower 

 branches descending to the ground. It has three 

 principal stems, measuring severally, at the surface 

 of the ground, five feet three inches, three feet 

 nine, and four feet four inches, equivalent to one 

 stem seven feet nine inches in circumference. 

 The spread of the branches is a hundred and thirty- 

 five feet in circumference. 



A low shrubby plant, which occurs not un- 

 frequently in woods and hedges, is sometimes 

 called Knee-holly, though in no w^ay allied to the 

 true Hollies. Its botanical name is Ruscus acu- 

 leatus, and it is also called Butcher's Broom. It 

 belongs to the natural order of Liliacecs^ and is 

 the only indigenous shrub in the class Endogens.^ 

 It may easily be detected by its tough, green, 

 striated stems, which are destitute of bark, and 

 send out from the upper part many short branches. 

 The rigid leaves are a mere expansion of the stem, 

 and terminate each in a single sharp spine. The 

 small green fiowers are solitary in the centre 

 of the leaves, and the fertile ones are succeeded 

 by bright scarlet berries as large as cherries, 



* For an explanation of this term, see Vol. i. p. xvi. 



