THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 13 
But in winter it is that we appreciate most fully the beauty and 
value of this tree. 
The Holly tree is one of the greatest ornaments of our gardens 
and shrubberies, and has been so for centuries, and we often see 
what Mason describes— 
“ The Holly’s prickly arms 
Trimm’d into high arcades.” 
It forms excellent hedges, impervious to man or beast. "Is 
there," says worthy John Evelyn in his "Sylvia,” "any more 
glorious sight and refreshing object of this kind than an im¬ 
pregnable hedge of about four hundred feet in length, nine feet 
high, and five in diameter, which I can still show in my ruined 
garden at Sayes Court (thanks to the Czar of Muscovy), any 
time of the year, glittering with its armed and variegated leaves, 
the taller standards, at ordinary distances, blushing with their 
natural coral? It mocks the rudest assaults of the weather, 
beasts, or hedge-breakers." 
To understand this allusion, we should remember that while 
the Czar Peter was in England, Sayes Court, the property of 
Evelyn, was rented by government for his use and residence. 
The Holly and the Mistletoe were associates in most festive 
scenes incidental to Yuletide, as it was formerly called; then, 
in the feudal ages it was customary with our forefathers to go 
forth with great solemnity to gather the Mistletoe on Christmas 
eve, and to hang it up in the baron’s hall with great rejoicings. 
Archdeacon Narcs mentions the custom to have prevailed in 
his time of hanging up a bush of Mistletoe, with the important 
charm attached to it, that the maid who was not kissed under it 
at Christmas would not be married that year. 
