"The mistletoe hung in the castle hall And the holly branch hung on the old oak wall; The baron's retainers were blythe and gay Keeping their Christmas holiday." Away back of- the Christian Era, not the Druids only, but the pagan tribes of Continental Europe, especially those under the rule of Rome, sent holly branches to each other as token of goodwill, and decked their dwellings with them in celebration of the feast of the Saturnalia—"the turning of the sun." The gradual lengthening of the days in late December mitigated the cold which brought so much suffering to rich and poor in the crude dwellings of the times. Yuletide, the feast of the Celtic sun god, Yaioul, gradually and naturally gave way to the later celebration of Christmas. The Aquifolium became the Christ Thorn, or Christdorn—the "holy tree," afterward called "holly." It was regarded by devout people as a symbol of the Saviour's crown of thorns.
Though only half hardy in the latitude of New York and Boston, many varieties of Ilex Aquifolium are to be found in American gardens, and where necessary are tied up in straw for the winter. The beauty of these little trees amply repays all the care they cost. Just one of the American species, 1. opaca, might be confused with this one.
Hollies are multiplied by ripened wood cuttings, by grafting and budding, and by seeds, which germinate the second year after planting. The seedlings require transplanting after their second year of growth. Evergreen hollies must be stripped of all their leaves whenever transplanted. Young trees are moved with comparative safety. The best time is early fall or early spring.
The hollies introduced from Japan include the species I. latifolia, a large tree in its native land, with long, glossy leaves and large red berries in abundance. This is one of the most beautiful and hardy trees in the family. 1. Sieboldi, is a slender shrub with dainty leaves and scarlet berries. It is like the native black alder, but smaller in all its parts. Two forms of this species are grown.
Of our native shrubby hollies, the two winterberries, 1. lavigata and I. verticellata, are far the most ornamental. The latter is the black alder, found from Canada to the Gulf, and west to Wisconsin and Missouri. Its leaves blacken after heavy frost, but the abundant red berries remain, untouched by birds, late into the winter. It is one of the best of hardy shrubs for winter brightness in the shrubby border. Its fruit-laden branches gathered in the wild are sold for Christmas decorations.
American Holly (Ilex opaca, Ait.)—A slow-growing, pyra midal tree, 20 to 45 feet high, with short, horizontal branches. Bark grey, warty; twigs brown. Wood white, close grained, tough, not strong. Buds short, pointed, brown. Leaves 2 to 4 inches long, oval, leathery, shiny, with wavy margin, veins ending in sharp, stiff spines; persistent three years. Flowers small, white, axillary in clusters, dicecious. Fruits bright red (rarely yellow), dry berries, containing 4 bony nutlets, remaining all winter. Preferred habitat, moist woodlands. Distribution, southern Maine to Florida and throughout Gulf States; north into Indiana and Missouri. Maximum size in Texas. Uses: Valuable ornamental and hedge trees. Wood used as engravers' blocks, for tool handles, whip stocks, walking sticks and for inlay work.
Branches for Christmas greens.
It is rare to find a wood which so closely imitates ivory in colour and texture as holly wood does. This makes it the delight of the carver and decorator. Scroll work and turnery employ it. Trunks of it form the rollers by which calicoes are printed. But the Southern woods and barren fallow fields where the holly grows are invaded every fall by collectors who cut the trees down, strip them, of their twigs, and leave the trunks to rot upon the ground. These twigs go to Northern cities, and retail dealers display in quantities, as wreaths and loose clusters, the evergreen leaves, bright with scarlet berries. In the remotest village one may now buy a sprig for his buttonhole to usher in the Christmas holiday. The supply is still ample, but no means of renewing it is being practised, and Nature will not be able to keep up much longer with the increasing demand, and the wasteful methods of gathering the annual harvest. It will not be long before the engraver will have to buy holly wood, as he does the Eastern boxwood, by the pound. The European holly and the American are not essentially different in the quality and appearance of their wood.
The Dahoon (Ilex Cassine, Linn.) is a shrub or small tree which grows on pine barrens and in low woods along the coast from Virginia to Florida and west into Louisiana. Its evergreen leaf is shiny above and twice as long as that of Ilex opaca, but it has only occasionally a faint suggestion of teeth near the tip; and it has no spines at all. The twigs and midribs of the leaves are downy. The berries are dull red. A white-stemmed, narrow leaved variety, myrti folia, is quite distinct from the type.
The Yaupon (Ilex vomitoria, Ait.) is a shrubby tree of spread ing habit with very small oval, evergreen leaves and many red berries. It grows from Virginia to Florida and west to Texas and Arkansas. The Indians made their famous "Black Drink" by boiling the leaves of this tree. This nauseating beverage was persistently drunk for several days with the notion that the system was thoroughly cleansed by the process. This purifica tion was a yearly ceremonial in which the whole tribe took a part.
The Swamp, or Meadow Holly (Ilex decidua, Walt.) grows in wet soil throughout the South, its northern limits being Virginia and Kansas. Generally a shrub, it becomes a tree 3o feet high in Texas, Arkansas and Missouri. The thin brown bark is cov ered with warty outgrowths. Its most striking characteristic is the silvery grey bark of its twigs. The deciduous leaves are tapering at the base and blunt, often notched, at the apex. The red berries are flattened.
The Mountain Holly (Ilex monticola, Gray.) has a thin, serrated leaf that might be mistaken for a cherry or plum leaf, except that it is usually larger. This is one of the handsomest of the tree hollies. Its fruit is as large as a cherry. Unfortu nately, leaves and fruit fall early, so they cannot be used for deco ration. The tree is found in mountain woods from New York to Alabama, following the Appalachian chain to its southern limits. The species is shrubby except in the two Carolinas.