EVERGREEN ORNAMENTAL TREES. 
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decorated with its boughs. We have much to regret, 
therefore, in the severity of our winters, which will not 
permit the European Holly to flourish in the middle or 
eastern states, as a hardy tree. South of Philadelphia, it 
may become acclimated ; but it appears to suffer greatly 
further north. 
A beautiful succedaneum, however, may, we believe, be 
found in the American Holly (Ilex opaca), which indeed 
very closely resembles the foreign species in almost every 
particular. The leaves are w T aved or irregular in surface 
and outline, though not so much so as those of the latter, 
and their color is a much lighter shade of green. Like 
those of the foreign plant, they are armed on the edges 
with thorny prickles, and the surface is brilliant and 
polished. The American Holly is seen in the greatest 
perfection on the eastern shore of Maryland and Virginia, 
and the lower part of New Jersey. There it thrives 
best upon loose, dry, and gravelly soils. Michaux says 
it is also common through all the extreme southern states, 
and in West Tennessee, in 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 wl 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 favorite plants for verdant sculpture, in the 
ancient style of gardening. Evelyn, in the edition of his 
