1902

ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM.

FART 111.

Bridge, and the other in the private garden at Whitehall, having lesser leavesthan the former. The latter of these,” he adds, “is yet standing, and everyyear bears small acorns which I could never observe come to any maturity.”(Ger. Emac., p. 1343.) Parkinson, in 1640, mentions the same tree asstanding “in the king’s privie garden at Whitehall;” and Evelyn, in 1678,speaks of it as a “ sickly imp of more than fourscore years’ growth.” Gerardcalls it the great skarlet oke; but Parkinson corrects him, and applies thename of the scarlet holm oke only to the true species, Q. coccifera, or, ashe calls it, Q. coccigera. Q. /'lex was called the holm oak on account ofthe resemblance of the leaves of some of the varieties to those of the holly;though this term is more applicable to Q. gramuntia. Evelyn seems to havebeen one of the first to recommend the planting of this tree generally forhedges and standards; but the most extensive planter of the ilex was, doubt-less, “that curious gentleman, Robert Balle, Esq., F.R.S., of Mamhead, inDevonshire,” who raised some thousands of these trees from acorns, andtransplanted them with so much success and judgment, that Bradley, writingabout the beginning of the last century, says that some of them, in a fewyears, “ had grown to a considerable greatness of stature.”- Some account ofthese trees will be found in the Gardener’s Magazine , vol. xi.; by which itappears that the largest of them, which grows in a red loamy soil, on a sub-stratum of redstone conglomerate, about 600 ft. above the level of the sea,was, in 1835, 85ft. high, with a trunk lift, in circumference; anotherwas 70ft. high, with a trunk 14ft. in circumference; and a third was 55ft.high, with a trunk 22 ft. in circumference. The Q. /'lex has ripened fruitat Marino, and other places, in the vicinity of Dublin; and it has attaineda considerable size in Scotland, as will appear by our Statistics. It is muchplanted in France; and is by far the commonest evergreen in Italy, where themonotonous character which it gives to many of the celebrated gardens inthe neighbourhood of Rome and Florence has obtained for it from Forsyththe appellation of “ the eternal ilex.” In the north of France, and in Ger-many, it is seldom met with except in green-houses; and it is also a green-house shrub in New York.

Poetical and historical Allusions. Most of the ancient writers, as well sacredas profane, appear to make a difference between the ilex and the commonoak. According to Lowth, the teil tree mentioned by Isaiah (vi. 13.) was anilex. Goodwyn, in his Jewish Antiquities, p. 75,, observes that the holmoak was an object of worship among the Etruscans. Modern poets, particu-larly those of the south of Europe, also make occasional allusions to thistree. In Spain, Garcilasso says, —

-“ Hast thou forgotten, too,

Childhood’s sweet sports, whence first my passion grew;

When from the bowery ilex I shook down

Its autumn fruit, which on the craig’s high crown

We tasted, sitting chattering side by side ?

Who climb’d trees swinging o’er the hoarse deep tide,

And pour’d into thy lap, or at thy feet,

Their kernel’d nuts, the sweetest of the sweet ?” Wiffen’s Garcilasso, p. 216.Garcilasso, in another poem, mentions both the oak and the ilex : —

“ But, in calm idlesse laid,

Supine in the cool shadeOf oak or ilex, beech or pendent pine,

Sees his flocks feeding stray,

Whitening a length of way,

Or numbers up his homeward tending kine.” Ibid., p. 198.

Properties and Uses. The sap wood of the Q. /'lex is whitish; but theheart, or perfect, wood, is of a brown colour, very close-grained, heavy, andvery hard ; so much so, indeed, that, according to Parkinson, it is “ not easiefor an axe, but for a saw, to cut it.” ( Theat. Bot., p. 1394.) It weighs 70 lb. tothe cubic foot, and takes a fine polish ; but twists and splits a great deal indrying, like most other hard and heavy woods. It is of great duration, andalso of considerable flexibility; for which reason, in Languedoc, helves ofhatchets and other instruments are made of it, and are found to preserve their