FORFSIGHT. 109 
plant. The great hollies which grow in the 
forest of Needwood bear leaves bristling with 
thorns to the height of eight or ten feet, and 
above this height the leaves cease to be thorny. 
There the plant has no need to arm itself 
against enemies which cannot reach it. This 
tree, with its dazzling verdure, is the last orna- 
ment of our forests, when they are despoiled by 
the winter’s frosts and chilling blasts; its berries 
serve as food for the little birds which remain 
with us through the inclement season of winter ; 
and it also offers them a comfortable shelter 
amid its foliage. 
In that delightful work, Jesse’s Gleanings 
in Natural History, the eloquent author, speak- 
ing of the holly, says,—“ The economy of trees, 
plants, and vegetables, is a curious subject of 
inquiry, and in all of them we may trace the 
hand of a beneficent Creator; the same care 
which he has bestowed on his creatures is ex- 
tended to plants; this is remarkably the case 
with respect to hollies: the edges of the 
leaves are provided with strong sharp spines, 
as high up as they are within the reach of 
cattle; above that height the leaves are gene- 
rally smooth, the protecting spines being no 
longer necessary.” 
Mr. Southey has noticed this circumstance 
in the following pretty lines :-— 
O reader ! hast thou ever stood to see 
The holly tree ? 



