I 'LEX AQUIFO'LIUM. 
MIDDLE-rAISTED-LEAVED HOLLY. 
Class. 
PENTANDRIA. 
Order. 
TETRAGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
AQUIFOLIACEAS. 
Garden 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Habit. 
Cultivated 
Variety. 
10 feet. 
Apr., June. 
Shrub. 
in 1796. 
No. 1060. 
The 979th plant of this work is Ilex balearica, 
a fine shrub, resembling the common Holly, but of 
more free growth, and larger foliage, To the des- 
cription of this plant we may refer for the deriva- 
tion of the name. Holme, is an old and rather 
common name for the Holly; as may he sup- 
posed from its name being still attached to land 
and houses, as Homesdale, Holmescroft, &c. where 
its meaning has long been forgotten. 
Too little use is now made of Hollies in all our 
ornamental plantations, for they are, in fact, the 
jewels of the shrubbery ; none so brilliant, none so 
glittering, as the Holly ; and that, not for a season 
only; but in winter as in summer, in one age as 
in another, for it lives for centuries. Pliny men- 
tions one, at Rome, 800 years old. If variety he 
coveted, it is freely given in the peculiarities of the 
spiny green leaves, in numerous variegations, and 
in differences of fruit. More attention appears to 
have been paid to these varieties, a century ago, 
than at present; for Miller enumerates many; some 
of which glory in names full of the gallantry of the 
age, as Phyllis, Painted Lady, Milkmaid, <ic. 
