Although the growth of the Holly is slow, yet it is always beautiful; and we regret that the American sort, which may be easily brought into cultivation, is so very rarely seen in our gardens or grounds. The seeds are easily procured, and if scalded and sowed in autumn, immediately after being gathered, they vegetate freely. For hedges the Holly is altogether unrivalled; and it was also one of the favorite plants for verdant sculpture, in the ancient style of gardening. Evelyn, in the edition of his Sylva, published in London in 1664, thus bursts out in eloquent praise of it: "Above all natural greens which enrich our home-born store, there is none certainly to be compared to the Holly; insomuch that I have often wondered at our curiosity after foreign plants and expensive difficulties, to the neglect of the culture of this vulgar but incomparable tree,-whether we will propagate it for use and defence, or for sight and ornament. Is there under heaven a more glorious and refreshing object of the kind, than an impregnable hedge of one hundred and sixty-five feet in length, seven high, and five in diameter, which I can show in my poor gardens, at any time of the year, glittering with its armed and varnished leaves? The taller standards at orderly distances blushing with their natural coral. It mocks the rudest assaults of the weather, beasts, or hedge-breaker:- 'Et ilium nemo impune lacessit.'"
