120 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the weather may be. Mulch the plants, and give them a good watering, 

 with gentle syringing over the leaves on fine evenings. 



As a specimen, on a wide lawn, with branches feathering down to 

 the ground, few things can exceed the fine symmetry of the finest green - 

 leaved hollies, though amongst the host of garden varieties which have 

 been raised, many of them most beautiful in their variegation, there is 

 abundance of choice to satisfy the most exacting taste. We all love the 

 glowing berries which help to light up the winter day, but the creamy 

 foam of holly flowers in spring scarcely ever receives its due measure of 

 praise. 



Take it year in and year out, few trees, home or foreign, keep their 

 beauty at all times like the holly ; and not only can it be used as 

 a single specimen or in a well-placed group in a pleasaunce, it is quite 

 as invaluable in the home copse, filling spaces under larger trees where 

 nothing else will flourish, and giving just that invigorating touch of 

 warmth and brightness to the woodside, by the glint of its polished 

 leaves, which is the prerogative of no other British evergreen. The best 

 varieties for specimens on the lawn are ' "Weeping Silver,' maclerensis 

 Slieplicrdii, and ' Handsworth Silver.' 



Nothing, again, in the way of an impenetrable fence can beat a well- 

 grown holly hedge. A double row of strong nursery plants, from three to 

 four feet high, set fairly close together and well mulched over the roots 

 as scon as planted, with a thick layer of old farmyard manure, will make 

 wonderfully good progress in three seasons, and after that will increase 

 yearly at a rate of six inches to eighteen inches in hei^t according to 

 the rainfall. They should be pruned with a knife during the earlier 

 years of planting, and later on it is a matter of taste and judgment 

 how much clipping and trimming will be appropriate. Priming should 

 take place just before they start into growth in spring. In some 

 positions close shearing is indispensable, and nothing stands such 

 drastic treatment better. Even a hedge that is intended to form a screen 

 on the outskirts of a plantation, or any other position where such a 

 feature is desirable, is greatly improved by the use of the knife in the 

 earlier stages, to close the plants, so to speak, and furnish them with 

 shoots from the bottom. The most suitable varieties for hedges or for 

 growing under trees are : Shepherdii, Dahoon, and the broad-leaved 

 hybrids from named sorts. These are not named varieties, but seedlings 

 from them which are natural hybrids. The large collection of named 

 hollies to be seen in Messrs. Fisher, Son & Sibray's nursery at Hands- 

 worth, Sheffield, lends itself to the production of a race of hollies that 

 would appeal to the most fastidious, either for making hedges or for 

 creating beautiful effects in woodland and pleasure grounds. The foliage 

 is very fine, the growth rapid, and the berries bright and profuse. 



A note by the Editor of "Flora and Sylva," in that journal, upon 

 the importance of the holly for hedges and shelters, I may well quote, 

 as it is the outcome of great experience with this beautiful evergreen. 

 " In too many places in our country there is the unfortunate use of the 

 iron fence, which has neither beauty nor endurance, and is useless for 

 shelter. A well-made live fence will last three times the life of an iron 

 one ; and of all possible living evergreen fences the best is holly, in close 



