128 
PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
iberb of ©race, see iRue. 
IfooUg. 
Heigh-ho ! sing, heigh-ho ! unto the green Holly : 
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly : 
Then, heigh-ho, the Holly ! 
This life is most jolly .—As You Like It , ii. 7, 180. 
From this single notice of the Holly in Shakespeare, and 
from the slight account of it in Gerard, we might conclude 
that the plant was not the favourite in the sixteenth century 
that it is in the nineteenth; but this would be a mistake. The 
Holly entered largely into the old Christmas carols. 
“ Christmastide 
Comes in like a bride, 
With Holly and Ivy clad ”—• 
and it was from the earliest times used for the decoration of 
houses and churches at Christmas. It does not, however, 
derive its name from this circum¬ 
stance, though it was anciently 
spelt “holy,” or called the “holy 
tree,” for the name comes from 
a very different source, and is 
identical with “ holm,” which, 
indeed, was its name in the 
time of Gerard and Parkinson, 
and is still its name in some 
parts of England, though it has 
almost lost its other old name 
of Hulver, 1 except in the eastern 
counties, where the word is still 
in use. But as an ornamental 
tree it does not seem to have 
been much valued, though in 
1 il Hulwur- tre (huluyr), hulmus, hulcus aut huscus.”— Promptorium 
Parvulorum . 
