As a fence, holly is eminently serviceable. When formed into hedges, it admits of being cropped, and retains its verdure and beauty, without injury, even through the severest winters. Its growth is slow, and its duration longer than that of most other trees. The _wood_, which is hard and close-grained, is much used in veneering, and is frequently stained black, to imitate ebony. It is likewise advantageously used in making handles for knives, cogs for mill-wheels, and other articles. The _leaves_ in winter afford a grateful food to sheep and deer; and the _berries_ yield a subsistence, during this inclement season, to the feathered tribes. In some places, particularly in the island of Corsica, the inhabitants employ the seeds of holly for making a beverage somewhat similar, but much inferior, to coffee. The _bark_ of the holly is smooth, and replete with a strong mucilaginous substance, from which the article called _bird-lime_ is made. For this purpose it is boiled ten or twelve hours; and, when the green rind is separated, it is covered up in a moist place, to stand for a fortnight. It is afterwards reduced to a tough paste, and washed in a running stream until no impurities are left. The next part of the process is to suffer it to ferment for four or five days; after which it is mixed, over the fire, with a third part of nut-oil (241), or some other oily fluid, and is thus rendered fit for use. Bird-lime has a remarkably adhesive quality, particularly to feathers and other dry substances. It is, on this account, employed for the smearing of twigs to ensnare birds. In its elasticity and inflammable nature it has much resemblance to Indian rubber; and, if any means could be adopted to harden it, there is little doubt but it might be substituted for that article. Holly deserves to be much more extensively cultivated than it is. Some years ago a person who purchased a holly wood in Yorkshire, sold the bird-lime prepared from the bark to a Dutch merchant, for nearly the whole sum of his original purchase. Among the ancient Romans it was customary to send branches of holly, to their friends, with new years' gifts, as emblematical of good wishes. We decorate our houses and churches with it at Christmas, to give, as it has been observed, an air of spring in the depth of winter. ---- CLASS V.--PENTANDRIA. ---- MONOGYNIA. 57. _ALKANET is a dyeing drug, the bark of a root which produces a rough plant_ (Anchusa tinctoria), _with downy and spear-shaped leaves, and clusters of small purple or reddish flowers, the stamens of which are shorter than the corolla._ Though this plant is sometimes cultivated in England, by far the greater portion of the alkanet which we use is imported either from the Levant, or from the neighbourhood of Montpelier in France.