From May to August is the best season to study the Holly (_Ilex aquifolium_--order _Aquifoliaceæ_). We are all acquainted with this tree in its winter condition, with its bright red or yellow 'berries,' but during the months above named the less familiar flowers are in bloom. The tree is common in the woods of all parts of Britain, and is easily distinguished at all times by its smooth, grey bark, as well as by its thick, glossy, spiny, evergreen leaves, which are placed alternately on the branches, attached by very short stalks. As a rule the leaves have waved margins, and are armed with several very strong spines; but commonly the spines of the upper leaves are much fewer, and are sometimes reduced to a single one at the apex. The little white flowers form dense clusters in the axils of the leaves. Generally they contain both stamens and pistil, but often they are imperfect, the pistillate flowers predominating on some trees and the staminate ones on others. Their parts are arranged in fours, the calyx having four small teeth, and the corolla four spreading lobes, while four stamens are attached to the latter, and the ovary has the same number of cells, and the style terminates in an equal number of small stigmas. The fruits are not really berries, but little, poisonous drupes containing four one-seeded stones. [Illustration: THE IVY-LEAVED BELL FLOWER.] The Privet (_Ligustrum vulgare_), which forms, together with the Ash, the whole of the order _Oleaceæ_, as far as British species are concerned, is very common in the southern counties, where it is often an escape from gardens, the bush being so largely employed in the formation of hedges; but it is truly wild, and very plentiful on the chalky soils of the south and east of England. Except during very severe winters the old leaves remain until the early spring leaves are well formed, so that the bush is always green. The flowers are white, with a very characteristic odour, and are arranged in dense, terminal, conical panicles. The calyx forms a little cup with four teeth, but soon falls; and the corolla is funnel-shaped, with four spreading lobes at the top of its tube. The stamens are short, attached to the corolla; and the superior ovary ripens to a black, globular berry containing two or four seeds. The bushes are in bloom during June and July. [Illustration: TWO TWIGS OF HOLLY One from a lower, and one from the topmost branch of the same tree, the former in fruit.]