berry tree which lacks pollen. If the flowers 
grow in tiny clusters of three to five you have 
a pollen tree. It will never bear berries but 
will supply pollen for the berry bearing trees 
you will plant. 
ACCIDENTS 
The bark of holly is little more than a deli¬ 
cate skin. It is easily injured and wounds of 
any size heal badly. Therefore, a little grass 
fire which seared but slightly the bark at the 
base of the tree would probably be fatal and 
any abrasion of the bark is more injurious to 
holly than to most other plants. 
Branches of holly, accidentally broken, will 
often be renewed in a remarkable manner if the 
roots and the bark of the trunk are in vigorous 
condition. A beautiful little holly about eight 
feet high had three feet of top cut out by 
vandals just before Christmas. The owners 
were red hot, but to their amazement and de¬ 
light the next summer the tree sent up a new 
leader to the full height of the one it had 
lost. After two more seasons the new top was 
so perfectly filled out that close examination 
was required to detect any imperfection in 
the trunk. 
With the loss of a branch the young tree 
will need the gardener’s assistance to regain 
its symmetry. The uninjured branches may be 
shortened from six to twelve inches to throw 
more energy into the renewal of the broken 
branch. It may be necessary to repeat this 
process two or more seasons in order to secure 
perfect symmetry. 
PRUNING 
The removal of a portion of the branches of 
a holly tree increases the vigor of growth the 
following season and insures more beautiful 
foliage with larger and more numerous berries. 
Until the plant is six to eight feet high pruning 
may well be limited to the removal of such 
twigs and branches as tend to make the plant 
unsymmetrical. 
As the plant grows older you will probably 
wish to prune it in one of two ways. If you 
