280 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
which latter places it abounds on the margins of shady 
swamps, where the soil is cool and fertile. In such spots it 
often reaches forty feet in height, and twelve or fifteen 
inches in diameter. 
Although the growth of the Holly is slow, yet it is always 
beautiful ; and we regret that the American sort, which may 
be easily brought into cultivation, is so very rarely seen in 
our gardens or grounds. The seeds are easily procured ; 
and if scalded and sowed in autumn, immediately after being 
gathered, they vegetate freely. For hedges the Holly is 
altogether unrivalled ; and it was also one of the favourite 
plants for verdant sculpture , in the ancient style of garden- 
ing. Evelyn, in the edition of his Sylva, published in 
London in 1664, thus bursts out in eloquent praise of it : 
“ Above all natural greens which enrich our home-born 
store, there is none certainly to be compared to the Holly ; 
insomuch that I have often wondered at our curiosity after 
foreign plants and expensive difficulties, to the neglect of 
the culture of this vulgar but incomparable tree, — whether 
we will propagate it for use and defence, or for sight and 
ornament. Is there under heaven a more glorious and re- 
freshing object of the kind, than an impregnable hedge of 
one hundred and sixty-five feet in length, seven high, and 
five in diameter, which I can show in my poor gardens, at 
any time of the year, glittering with its armed aud varnished 
leaves 1 The taller standards, at orderly distances, blushing 
with their natural coral. It mocks the rudest assaults of 
the weather, beasts, or hedge-breaker 
( Et ilium nemo impune lacessit.’ ” 
