In all our various excursions in the woods and fields, from childhood and youth upward, we had never met with anv wild growing thin so beautiful so charming, so altogether perfect, and so desirable as an ornament for the cultivated lawns and shrubberies. Nay, more than this, we feel that we can say most sincerely, that we know of no prized and costly exotic from far-off foreign climes, that can surpass it, especially when thus decked out with its jewels of brilliant coral. And, not only the size and rich deep green of its foliage, but the quaint and rare cutting of its leaves, give to it a striking and peculiar effect, and add much to its value. We would gladly have paid an extravagant sum to have had even one of these charming specimens, in all its perfection, growing on our own grounds; but, finding from the size of their trunks, and their ages, as well as from the stones and rocks among which they grew, that we could not have the faintest hope of success in transplanting them, we bore away as splendid trophies - barbarous as it may seem - a load of branches, coral and emerald, for admiring friends, placing a rich boquet of them even in front of our church pulpit, where the usual offering of flowers is laid, which formed the fittest possible decoration of the sanctuary, the dark and glossy leaves of strange and mystic shape, and scarlet fruit, harmonizing finely with the dark, carved rose-wood of the sacred desk.

The Holly, with us, is seldom found in the open ground; it generally sequesters itself in the. thicket of the forest, where, in the solemn shadow, and under the drip of the trees, it best flourishes. This peculiar characteristic of the Holly tree constitutes its great excellence for planting out as an evergreen among other trees and shrubs. Although, perhaps, it grows in more beautiful shape, and makes a more perfect tree, when standing unsheltered in the free air and broad sunshine, yet its growth in such situations is exceedingly slow and laborious, and without a great deal of moisture it probably would not attain a height of six feet in twenty years; while under the moist shelter of the forest it increases rapidly, making often a foot or more of growth in a year, and we found numerous specimens in our after excursions that had thus attained the height of twenty-five to thirty feet. There are so many of our most ornamental evergreens - as the Firs, Spruces, Ac, - that refuse to flourish under the shade and drip of other trees, that a tree that makes its most rapid growth, and rejoices in such situations, is a very great desideratum.

We have been compelled to leave awkward spaces and ugly gaps in plantations of this kind, from the proximity of some large deciduous trees, or the broad shade of some grand and beautiful Elm, whose glories we could not spare, though it would permit no other growth under its far-extended branches. In such places, however, our friend the Holly tree finds its natural and appropriate shelter, and flourishes in grateful luxuriance. There its leaves assume a darker, richer, glossier green, kept always moist and darkened from the summer's "too excessive ray;" and its otherwise dwarfed proportions will thus assume a lighter form and a more stately size.

In transplanting the Holly, we have generally found the roots of the small trees to run near the surface, and above the roots of other trees; and this renders them easy to take up when young. In re-setting them, we would suggest the commixture of stones and rocks in the soil in which they are planted, and a good covering of chips.

We have made collections of the berries also, as well as of the young trees, and hope to interest our horticultural friends in their cultivation. There is no plant that would make a more quaintly beautiful and striking hedge than this our native Hex. In the open ground it is of remarkably thick growth, and its stiff and well-armed leaves would render it impenetrable even to fowls and smaller animals, and no ox or wild bull even would dare to thrust his muzzle more than once into their prickly thicket; for, in words from the poet SoutheY's ode to the Holly tree, " 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".

As beautiful and as famous as the English Holly has been for ages, it can not be cultivated in our severer climate and more changeable winters; but our own Holly, I think, will be found by culture to be not a whit inferior to its more distinguished foreign brother, and to deserve all the enthusiastic encomiums that it has received at the mouths of the poets; and we may say of our New England Hex, in the words of Eliza Cook - "The Holly the Holly! oh, twine it with Bay - • Come, give the Holly a song;

For it helps to drive stern winter away, With his garment so sombre and long.

"It peeps thro' the trees with its berries of red, And its leaves of burnished green, When the flowers and fruits have long been dead, And not even the Daisy is seen.

"Then sing to the Holly, the Christmas Holly, That hangs over peasant and king; While we laugh and carouse 'neath its glittering boughs, To the Christmas Holly well sing".