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an introduction here; but it is another proof of the high 
estimation in winch he held it. 
Gilpin, too, avers that he admires it as much as his 
brother naturalist, but certainly with more tasteful 
discrimination, not when planted so as to form “ stout 
walls, twenty feet in height, kept upright, and in some 
places shorn and fashioned into columns and pilasters, 
architecturally shaped,” but when growing wild in a 
glen or forest, “ where, mixed with oak or ash, or other 
trees, it contributes to form the most beautiful scenes, 
blending itself with the trunks and skeletons of winter, 
or with the varied greens of summer.” He, however, 
questions its right to the title of tree, which is somewhat 
unreasonable, as it rises in situations favourable to its 
growth to the height of thirty feet, and produces valuable 
timber. 
Besides the claim it has on our regard, both on account 
of its beauty and unfading verdure, it can boast others of 
equal weight. It is associated with the holy and joyful 
festival of Christmas: the ancient custom of decorating 
churches and houses at that season with evergreens, 
though not perhaps so universal as formerly, is still 
observed, and in such rites the holly-bough is always 
most conspicuous. 
It belongs to a genus containing many species and 
