78 
House & Garden 
The Most Welcome 
Holiday Gift 
Onyx' 
Silk 
Hosiery 
Reg u.S Pot. orfic# 
Shows good judgment 
on your part—sure to 
please because beauti¬ 
ful, sensible and prac¬ 
tical. 
The assortments em¬ 
brace every new shade 
in plain colors, also 
clocked, hand embroid¬ 
ered and Novelties for 
Men and Women. 
Sold at all Leading Shops 
—should you need our help 
in finding your exact re¬ 
quirements, write us. 
Emery-Beers Company, Inc . 
JV hole sale Distributors 
Broadway at 24th St., New York 
All of the Hollies 
(Continued from page 39 ) 
erally; and so it became Quercus ilex, re¬ 
taining thus a means of identification 
in its varietal appellation. 
This would have been perfectly clear, 
if they had stopped there; but I suppose 
ilex was too good a word to go unused, 
except as tacking it onto something else 
might be called use. So it was chosen 
as the generic name for everything that 
hitherto had been called Aquifolium — 
and as time went on it applied to all 
the plants that were eventually discov¬ 
ered to be members of that family. 
Hence we are treated to the associa¬ 
tion of our own black alder or winter- 
berry, and our inkberry, with the classic 
thought which lies in the word ilex, 
these two being respectively Ilex verti- 
cillata and Ilex glabra. Least like the 
holly type of any shrubs in the family, 
these two are yet among the most valu¬ 
able native plants for landscape pur¬ 
poses that we have. Hardy and suited 
to the climate from Florida to Canada, 
they both have decorative fruits that 
remain on the branches through half 
the winter at least. 
Ink Berry and Black Alder 
On the inkberry (Ilex glabra ) which 
is evergreen, these fruits or small berries 
are black and therefore not as showy 
as the scarlet ones of the winterberry 
or black alder (Ilex verticillata). But 
for all that, it is a shrub well worth 
using, being a branched and sturdy 
growth about 8' high at maturity, with 
foliage that is always healthy and pleas¬ 
ing in the mass. 
The black alder or winterberry is a 
very much more striking specimen, for 
its branches are literally strung their 
entire length with vivid, scarlet berries 
—berries suggesting to the layman’s eye, 
as nothing else about the bush does, its 
relationship to the holly of commoner 
knowledge. Neither of these has floral 
merit; and of course, there is no floral 
display in the holly, either. For their 
fruits and winter foliage alone are these 
things planted; and really, considering 
the beauty of these fruits, I feel that 
we could not ask anything more of them. 
It will not do to omit a third shrub, 
also called winterberry—the Ilex Icevi- 
gata, which is native only as far south 
as Virginia. This colors to a clear yel¬ 
low in the autumn, and has somewhat 
larger berries than Ilex verticillata, but 
not such an abundance of them. Never¬ 
theless, it is valuable and fully worthy 
of general notice. 
There is one peculiarity common to 
all the members of this family which I 
think cannot be too strongly emphasized 
and impressed on the mind of a pro¬ 
spective purchaser; so I am going to 
digress right here to speak of it. This 
is the fact that it is what is called a dioe¬ 
cious genus—that is, a genus which 
bears its pistillate and its staminate 
flowers upon separate individuals. This 
means that a single shrub or tree of 
any of the species or varieties will not 
yield the berries which are really the 
principal reason for planting it. 
There will, of course, be no fruits if 
nnly a staminate specimen is planted, 
for the staminate is not the fruit-pro¬ 
ducing sex. On the other hand, the 
pistillate plants alone will not be able 
to produce fruits, because of lack of 
pollen which the staminate flowers alone 
can supply. Sc it is not enough to be 
sure of getting the pistillate form of this 
genus; you must have the pistillate and 
the staminate—and then be reconciled 
to one non-fruiting specimen. Usually, 
a group of the pistillate plants are 
planted in company with one staminate, 
which is set in an inconspicuous posi¬ 
tion. It is not uncommon to come upon 
bushes of winterberry loaded with ber¬ 
ries with seemingly no staminate plants 
anywhere about; but within the reach 
of bees or within carrying distance by 
American holly may be 
grown hi masses or as 
single specimens, as 
here 
the wind there must be one specimen at 
least of the opposite sex. 
The European holly is not as hardy 
here as one could wish, though there 
are specimens growing fairly well to the 
north. But we have a native variety— 
or species, rather—which will stand the 
rigors of even the New England winters 
if sheltered—the Ilex opaca or Ameri¬ 
can holly. This is very like the Euro¬ 
pean, though its foliage is dull by com¬ 
parison and the berries not nearly so 
abundantly borne. Quantities of it find 
their way into the Christmas markets, 
and the Virginia fields are being robbed, 
unhappily, with that extravagant disre¬ 
gard for the future which is character¬ 
istic of the way such things are done 
in America. 
This American holly is the largest 
broad-leaved evergreen that is hardy in 
the north, and to my mind, should be 
cultivated on a very much larger scale 
than it ever has been here. It thrives 
on very poor and dry soil and stands 
drought and burning heat with no de¬ 
terioration of color. It has indeed taken 
possession of wornout lands in Virginia 
very much as the cedar has taken pos¬ 
session of the abandoned fields of Con¬ 
necticut ; and the beauty of these stands 
are decidedly eloquent of the possibili¬ 
ties as yet overlooked in this native 
broad-leaved evergreen tree. 
Hollies for Hedges and Boundaries 
As a hedge plant there is nothing 
superior to the European holly, for 
English gardens. It seems to me that 
we have here in our native species some¬ 
thing almost if not quite as good. 
Hedges of holly are trimmed in England 
to any desired form, as also are indi¬ 
vidual plants, when so desired. There 
seems to be nothing to prevent our mak¬ 
ing use of our hardy native species in 
exactly the same way, except our lack 
of initiative. It is, to be sure, slow 
growing; and it is impatient of handling 
when it has attained any considerable 
size. But slowness of growth means 
always strength, durability and greater 
beauty, once maturity is attained; and 
the difficulties are so well understood 
now that the danger of loss is prac¬ 
tically discounted—providing, of course, 
the handling is done according to ap¬ 
proved methods. 
The one way to transplant a holly is 
to strip it bare; if this is done, and ^11 
the rest of the rules for good trans¬ 
planting are observed, there is very little 
danger of failure. But if it is not done, 
failure is as certain as death and taxes, 
(Continued on page 80 ) 
c .Alnwick bedspreads 
'T'HESE beautiful creamy white spreads 
are exact reproductions of old English 
bedspreads made 100 to 150 years ago. The 
designs are worked entirely by hand and 
the fringe is hand-tied. They can be ordered 
without fringe if the spread is to be tucked 
in, and with fringe on the sides only for 
beds with foot boards. We will make the 
spreads to measure without extra charge. 
Although originally intended for Colonial 
furniture , the Alnwick Bedspreads are 
suited to any style of bed. 
We will gladly send a number of spreads 
on approval, if references are given. For 
further information or approval orders 
address 
_ The HANDWORK SHOP 
55 Market Street, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 
Call at the 
ALNWICK BEDSPREAD SHOWROOM 
505 Fifth Avenue (42nd St.) New York 
Marble Mantels 
Fountains, Benches 
Sun Dial Pedestals 
Bird Baths 
S.KLABER&CO. 
ESTABLISHED 1849 
21 WEST 39th ST., N. Y. 
Russian Antique Shop 
ONE EAST TWENTY-EIGHTH STREET 
WORKS OF ART IN METALS 
Unique and useful things of Brass, 
Copper, and Bronze wrought and beaten 
into artistic designs by the hands of 
Russian peasants. 
EXHIBIT OPEN TO THE PUBLIC 
Vases 
Benches, Pedestals, Fonts. 
EXPERTS 
Send 50 cents for catalogue 
MARBLE STONE TERRA COTTA 
For the Foyer 
of private residences, apart¬ 
ment, houses, and public 
buildings, stone benches, 
vases, fountains, etc., have 
proved to be particularly 
appropriate. 
We have on display a wide 
variety of ornamental furni¬ 
ture reproduced in Pom¬ 
peian Stone and can execute 
original designs at moder¬ 
ate cost. Illustrated cata¬ 
logue on request. 
The Erkins Studios 
The Largest Manufacturers 
of Ornamental Stone 
226 Lexington Avenue 
New York 
Factory, Astoria, L. I. 
