250 LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
affords them an hospitable shelter during the cold 
season. Thus Nature by a kind forethought has 
taken care to preserve the verdure of this handsome 
tree all the year round and to arm it with thorns, 
that it may furnish both food and protection to the 
innocent creatures which resort to it for refuge. It 
is a friend which her all-powerful hand raises up for 
them against the time when all other reliance fails. 
As, however, this is not a world of unmixed good, 
it may be added that, from the bark of the common 
Holly, when fermented and washed from the woody 
fibres, is made the bird-lime that is used for catching 
small birds. 
The Holly, with its scarlet berries, is the most 
beautiful of the evergreens that have been used for 
ages to adorn churches and houses at the joyful 
season of Christmas : 
Christinas, the joyous period of the year : 
Now with bright Holly all the temples strow, 
With laurel green and sacred mistletoe. 
Gay. 
With holly and ivy, 
So green and so gay, 
We deck up our houses 
As fresh as the day. 
