red in the most severe weather, and its rich coral
berries, sometimes borne in the greatest profusion, delighting us with
their brilliancy and beauty. And as a garden shrub, the Holly still
holds its own, after all the fine exotic shrubs that have been
introduced into our gardens during the present century. It can be grown
as a single shrub, or it may be clipped, and will then form the best and
the most impregnable hedge that can be grown. No other plant will
compare with it as a hedge plant, if it be only properly attended to,
and we can understand Evelyn's pride in his "glorious and refreshing
object," a Holly hedge 160ft. in length, 7ft. in height, and 5ft. in
diameter, which he could show in his "poor gardens at any time of the
year, glittering with its armed and vernished leaves," and "blushing
with their natural corale." Nor need we be confined to plain green in
such a hedge. The Holly runs into a great many varieties, with the
leaves of all shapes and sizes, and blotched and variegated in different
fashions and colours. All of these seem to be comparatively modern. In
the time of Gerard and Parkinson there seems to have been only the one
typical species, and perhaps the Hedgehog Holly.

I may finish the notice of the Holly by quoting two most remarkable uses
of the tree mentioned by Parkinson: "With the flowers of Holly, saith
Pliny from Pythagoras, water is made ice; and againe, a staffe of the
tree throwne at any beast, although it fall short by his defect that
threw it, will flye to him, as he lyeth still, by the speciall property
of the tree." He may well add--"This I here relate that you may
understand the fond and vain conceit of those times, which I would to
God we were not in these dayes tainted withal."

FOOTNOTES:

[123:1] "_Hulwur_-tre (huluyr), hulmus, hulcus aut huscus."--_Promptorium
Parvulorum._

HOLY THISTLE.

_Margaret._

Get you some of this distilled Carduus Benedictus, and lay it
to your heart; it is the only thing for a qualm.

_Hero._

There thou prickest her with a Thistle.

_Beatrice._

Benedictus! Why Benedictus? You have some moral in this
Benedictus.

_Margaret._

Moral! No, by my troth, I have no moral meaning: I meant plain
Holy Thistle.

_Much Ado About Nothing_, act iii, sc. 4 (73).

The _Carduus benedictus_, or Blessed Thistle, is a handsome annual from
the South of Europe,