86 
WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND TREES. 
Moscovy) at any time of the year, glittering with its armed and 
varnished leaves.^ The taller standards at orderly distance, 
blushing with their natural coral. It mocks the rudest assaults 
of the weather, beasts, or hedge-breakers, et ilium nemo impune 
lacessit" 
The bark of the Holly is smooth and pale-grey in colour. 
Time out of mind it has been used in the preparation of a viscid 
substance known as birdlime, which, spread on twigs, holds the 
feet of small birds. Respecting the foliage of the Holly, there 
is little need to say anything, but for uniformity’s sake we may 
note that the leaves are oval in shape, of a leathery consistence, 
with a firmer margin, running out into long sharp spines. It is 
a fact worthy of note that when the Holly has attained to a 
height of ten feet or so, it frequently clothes its upper branches 
in leaves that have no spines — a circumstance that Robert 
Southey sought to explain in his poem “ The Holly-tree,” on 
teleological grounds. His second verse, however, contains 
sufficient explanation of the fact it describes : — 
“ Below, a circling fence, its leaves are seen 
Wrinkled and keen ; 
No grazing cattle through their prickly round 
Can reach to wound ; 
But, as they grow where nothing is to fear. 
Smooth and unarm’d the pointless leaves appear.” 
In some places the young shoots are gathered by the peasants, 
dried, bruised, and used as a winter cattle-food. No doubt, in 
the early history of the Holly, cattle found out its good qualities 
for themselves, and browsed upon the then-unarmed foliage. In 
self-defence the tree developed spines upon its leaves, and so 
kept its enemies at a respectful distance. Above the reach of 
these marauders the production of spines would be a useless 
waste of material. 
The flowers of the Holly, though small, are conspicuous by 
their great number and white colour. They are about a quarter 
