the most impregnable hedge that can be grown. No other plant will compare with it as a hedge plant, if it be only properly attended to, and we can understand Evelyn's pride in his "glorious and refreshing object," a Holly hedge 160ft. in length, 7ft. in height, and 5ft. in diameter, which he could show in his "poor gardens at any time of the year, glittering with its armed and vernished leaves," and "blushing with their natural corale." Nor need we be confined to plain green in such a hedge. The Holly runs into a great many varieties, with the leaves of all shapes and sizes, and blotched and variegated in different fashions and colours. All of these seem to be comparatively modern. In the time of Gerard and Parkinson there seems to have been only the one typical species, and perhaps the Hedgehog Holly. I may finish the notice of the Holly by quoting two most remarkable uses of the tree mentioned by Parkinson: "With the flowers of Holly, saith Pliny from Pythagoras, water is made ice; and againe, a staffe of the tree throwne at any beast, although it fall short by his defect that threw it, will flye to him, as he lyeth still, by the speciall property of the tree." He may well add--"This I here relate that you may understand the fond and vain conceit of those times, which I would to God we were not in these dayes tainted withal." FOOTNOTES: [123:1] "_Hulwur_-tre (huluyr), hulmus, hulcus aut huscus."--_Promptorium Parvulorum._ HOLY THISTLE. _Margaret._ Get you some of this distilled Carduus Benedictus, and lay it to your heart; it is the only thing for a qualm. _Hero._ There thou prickest her with a Thistle. _Beatrice._ Benedictus! Why Benedictus? You have some moral in this Benedictus. _Margaret._ Moral! No, by my troth, I have no moral meaning: I meant plain Holy Thistle. _Much Ado About Nothing_, act iii, sc. 4 (73).