The Holly, with its scarlet berries, is the most beautiful of the evergreens that have been used for ages to adorn the churches of old England, during the Christmas season. It is an ornament to the woods, stripped bare by the rude breath of winter; its berries serve for food for the little birds that never leave us, and its foliage affords them an hospitable shelter during the cold season. Nature, by a seeming forethought, has been careful to preserve the verdure of this handsome tree all the year round, and to arm it with thorns, that it may furnish both food and protection to the innocent creatures which resort to it for shelter. It may be added, however, that from the bark of the common Holly, when fermented and washed from the woody fibres, is made the bird-lime which is used for catching small birds. * * * * * With Holly and ivy, So green and so gay, We deck up our houses As fresh as the day; With bays and rosemary, And laurel complete, And every one now Is a king in conceit. _Poor Robin’s Almanac, 1695._ * * * * * THE HOLLY TREE. O Reader! hast thou ever stood to see The Holly tree? The eye that contemplates it well perceives Its glossy leaves, Ordered by an intelligence so wise As might confound the atheist’s sophistries. Below, a circling fence its leaves are seen, Wrinkled and keen; No grazing cattle, through their prickly round Can reach to wound; But as they grow where nothing is to fear, Smooth and unarmed the pointless leaves appear. I love to view these things with curious eyes And moralize; And in this wisdom of the Holly tree Can emblems see, Wherewith, perchance, to make a pleasant rhyme, One which may profit in the after-time. Thus, though abroad, perchance I might appear Harsh and austere, To those who on my leisure would intrude Reserved and rude, Gentle at home amid my friends I’d be, Like the high leaves upon the Holly tree. And should my youth, as youth is apt, I know, Some harshness show, All vain asperities I day by day Would wear away, Till the smooth temper of my age should be Like the high leaves upon the Holly tree. And as when all the summer trees are seen So bright and green, The Holly leaves a sober hue display, Less bright than they; But when the bare and wintry woods we see, What then so cheerful as the Holly tree? So serious should my youth appear among The thoughtless throng, So would I seem amid the young and gay More grave than they, That in my age as cheerful I might be As the green winter of the Holly tree. _Southey._ * * * * *