THE HOLLIES No Christmas is Christmas truly without at least a few branches of the evergreen holly of the South, whose leathery, spiny-pointed leaves are brightened by clusters of red berries. Every year, hundreds of crates and boxes of these holly branches are shipped north from the woods of Alabaina, and other Southern states. Many people make their living by cutting loads of these branches, and hauling them to the shipping sheds, where they are packed and put onto the railroad. The business has grown so rapidly within the past twenty-five years that holly trees are be coming very scarce. It has never occurred to those who cut down and strip the trees that it takes years to grow new ones, and that nobody is planting for the future.
Holly wood is white, and very close-grained. It is admirable for tool handles, whipstocks, walk ing sticks, and for the blocks on which wood engravings are made. The living trees are planted for hedges, and for ornament. The leaves are evergreen, and the berries add bright ness and warmth to the shrubbery border when snow covers the ground.
Although it reaches its greatest size, and is most commonly found in Southern woods, this little tree follows the coast as far north as Long Island. I have found it much higher than my head, growing wild on the sand bar that sepa rates Great South Bay from the ocean, east of New York Harbour. Further north, it is occa sionally found, but in stunted sizes, and it is easily winter-killed.
The holly of Europe, which has brightened the English Christmas for centuries, has a far more deeply cleft and spiny leaf than ours. Beside it, our holly leaves and berries are dull, and dark coloured. The whole tree lacks the brightness Of the European species. Hedges of this lus trous-leaved holly shut in many an English gar den, and their bright berries glow cheerfully through the grey, sunless, winter days. No won der the gardeners frown upon the little thrushes that feed upon these berries, thus robbing the garden of one of its chief winter charms.
Three other American hollies are found as trees in our Eastern woods, but none of them is evergreen, and the trees are not numerous in any locality. We shall oftenest see the species known as the winterberry, whose abundant red berries remain untouched by the birds, until late in the spring. Many of these fruit-laden branches are gathered in the wild, and sold in cities for Christmas decorations. Sprays of these berries are often added to the evergreen holly branches when their own berries are scarce.
Christmas holly is something we cannot do without. As the supply grows less, the price will mount higher. Then will come a time when it is profitable to raise these trees in quantities, and holly farming will be practised in favourable localities in the Southern states. But that time has not yet come.