[1] _Hist. MSS. Comm., MSS. of Earl Cowper_, i. 422.
[2] The speech of January 5 attributed to him and printed in
_Thomason Tracts_, E 199 (55), is a forgery.
[3] Burnet's _History of His Own Times_, vi. 257, 268.
[4] The rough draft, apparently in Holles's handwriting, is in
_Egerton MSS._ ff. 136-149.
HOLLOWAY, THOMAS (1800-1883), English patent-medicine vendor and
philanthropist, was born at Devonport, on the 22nd of September 1800, of
humble parents. Until his twenty-eighth year he lived at Penzance, where
he assisted his mother and brother in the baker's shop which his father,
once a warrant officer in a militia regiment, had left them at his
death. On coming to London he made the acquaintance of Felix Albinolo,
an Italian, from whom he obtained the idea for the ointment which was to
carry his name all over the world. The secret of his enormous success in
business was due almost entirely to advertisement, in the efficacy of
which he had great faith. He soon added the sale of pills to that of the
ointment, and began to devote the larger part of his profits to
advertising. Holloway's first newspaper announcement appeared on the
15th of October 1837, and in 1842 his yearly expenses for publicity had
reached the sum of L5000; this expenditure went on steadily increasing
as his sales increased, until it had reached the figure of L50,000 per
annum at the time of his death. It is, however, chiefly by the two
princely foundations--the Sanatorium and the College for Women at Egham
(q.v.), endowed by Holloway towards the close of his life--that his name
will be perpetuated, more than a million sterling having been set apart
by him for the erection and permanent endowment of these institutions.
In the deed of gift of the college the founder credited his wife, who
died in 1875, with the advice and counsel that led him to provide what
he hoped might ultimately become the nucleus of a university for women.
The philanthropic and somewhat eccentric donor (he had an unconcealed
prejudice against doctors, lawyers and parsons) died of congestion of
the lungs at Sunninghill on the 26th of December 1883.
HOLLY (_Ilex Aquifolium_), the European representative of a large genus
of trees and shrubs of the natural order Ilicineae, containing about 170
species. The genus finds its chief development in Central and South
America; is well developed in Asia, especially the Chinese-Japanese
area, and has but few species in Europe, Africa and Australia. In
Europe, where _I. Aquifolium_ is the sole surviving species, the genus
was richly represented during the Miocene period by forms at first South
American and Asiatic, and later North American in type (Schimper,
_Paleont. veget._ iii. 204, 1874). The leaves are generally leathery and
evergreen, and are alternate and stalked; the flowers are commonly
dioecious, are in axillary cymes, fascicles or umbellules, and have a
persistent four- to five-lobed calyx, a white, rotate four- or rarely
five- or six-cleft corolla, with the four or five stamens adherent to
its base in the male, sometimes hypogynous in the female flowers, and a
two- to twelve-celled ovary; the fruit is a globose, very seldom ovoid,
and usually red drupe, containing two to sixteen one-seeded stones.
[Illustration: _Ilex Aquifolium._ Shoot bearing leaves and fruit about
1/2 nat. size.
1. Flower with abortive stamens.
2. Flower with abortive pistil.
3. Floral diagram showing arrangement of parts in horizontal section.
4. Fruit.
5. Fruit cut transversely showing the four one-seeded stones.]
The common holly, or Hulver (apparently the [Greek: kelastros] of
Theophrastus;[1] Ang.-Sax. _holen_ or _holegn_; Mid. Eng. _holyn_ or
_holin_, whence _holm_ and _holmtree_;[2] Welsh, _celyn_; Ger.
_Stechpalme_, _Hulse_, _Hulst_; O. Fr. _houx_; and Fr. _houlx_),[3] _I.
Aquifolium_, is an evergreen shrub or low tree, having smooth,
ash-coloured bark, and wavy, pointed, smooth and glossy leaves, 2 to 3
in. long, with a spinous margin, raised and cartilaginous below, or, as
commonly on the upper branches of the older trees, entire--a peculiarity
alluded to by Southey in his poem _The Holly Tree_. The flowers, which
appear in May, are ordinarily dioecious, as in all the best of the
cultivated varieties in nurseries (_Gard. Chron._, 1877, i. 149). Darwin
(_Diff. Forms of Flow._, 1877, p. 297) says of the holly: "During
several years I have examined many plants, but have never found one that
was really hermaphrodite." Shirley Hibberd, however (_Gard. Chron._,
1877, ii. 777), mentions the occurrence of "flowers bearing globose
anthers well furnished with pollen, and also perfect ovaries." In his
opinion, _I. Aquifolium_ changes its sex from male to female with age.
In the female flowers the stamens are destitute of pollen, though but
slightly or not at all shorter than in the male flowers; the latter are
more numerous than the female, and have a smaller ovary and a larger
corolla, to which the filaments adhere for a greater length. The corolla
in male plants falls off entire, whereas in fruit-bearers it is broken
into separate segments by the swelling of the young ovary. The holly
occurs in Britain, north-east Scotland excepted, and in western and
southern Europe, from as high as 62 deg. N. lat. in Norway to Turkey and
the Caucasus and in western Asia. It is found generally in forest glades
or in hedges, and does not flourish under the shade of other trees. In
England it is usually small, probably on account of its destruction for
timber, but it may attain to 60 or 70 ft. in height, and Loudon mentions
one tree at Claremont, in Surrey, of 80 ft. Some of the trees on Bleak
Hill, Shropshire, are asserted to be 14 ft. in girth at some distance
from the ground (_N. and Q._, 5th ser., xii. 508). The holly is abundant
in France, especially in Brittany. It will grow in almost any soil not
absolutely wet, but flourishes best in rather dry than moist sandy loam.
Beckmann (_Hist. of Invent._, 1846, i. 193) says that the plant which
first induced J. di Castro to search for alum in Italy was the holly,
which is there still considered to indicate that its habitat is
aluminiferous. The holly is propagated by means of the seeds, which do
not normally germinate until their second year, by whip-grafting and
budding, and by cuttings of the matured summer shoots, which, placed in
sandy soil and kept under cover of a hand-glass in sheltered situations,
generally strike root in spring. Transplantation should be performed in
damp weather in September and October, or, according to some writers, in
spring or on mild days in winter, and care should be taken that the
roots are not dried by exposure to the air. It is rarely injured by
frosts in Britain, where its foliage and bright red berries in winter
render it a valuable ornamental tree. The yield of berries has been
noticed to be less when a warm spring, following on a wet winter season,
has promoted excess of growth. There are numerous varieties of the
holly. Some trees have yellow, and others white or even black fruit. In
the fruitless variety _laurifolia_, "the most floriferous of all
hollies" (Hibberd), the flowers are highly fragrant; the form known as
_femina_ is, on the other hand, remarkable for the number of its
berries. The leaves in the unarmed varieties _aureo-marginata_ and
_albo-marginata_ are of great beauty, and in _ferox_ they are studded
with sharp prickles. The holly is of importance as a hedge-plant, and is
patient of clipping, which is best performed by the knife. Evelyn's
holly hedge at Say's Court, Deptford, was 400 ft. long, 9 ft. high and 5
ft. in breadth. To form fences, for which Evelyn recommends the
employment of seedlings from woods, the plants should be 9 to 12 in. in
height, with plenty of small fibrous roots, and require to be set 1 to
1(1/2) ft. apart, in well-manured and weeded ground and thoroughly
watered.
The wood of the holly is even-grained and hard, especially when from the
heartwood of large trees, and almost as white as ivory, except near the
centre of old trunks, where it is brownish. It is employed in inlaying
and turning, and, since it stains well, in the place of ebony, as for
teapot handles. For engraving it is inferior to box. When dry it weighs
about 47(1/2) lb. per cub. ft. From the bark of the holly bird-lime is
manufactured. From the leaves are obtainable a colouring matter named
_ilixanthin_, _ilicic acid_, and a bitter principle, _ilicin_, which has
been variously described by different analytical chemists. They are
eaten by sheep and deer, and in parts of France serve as a winter fodder
for cattle. The berries provoke in man violent vomiting and purging, but
are eaten with immunity by thrushes and other birds. The larvae of the
moths _Sphinx ligustri_ and _Phoxopteryx naevana_ have been met with on
holly. The leaves are mined by the larva of a fly, _Phytomyza ilicis_,
and both on them and the tops of the young twigs occurs the plant-louse
_Aphis ilicis_ (Kaltenbach, _Pflanzenfeinde_, 1874, p. 427). The custom
of employing holly and other plants for decorative purposes at Christmas
is one of considerable antiquity, and has been regarded as a survival of
the usages of the Roman Saturnalia, or of an old Teutonic practice of
hanging the interior of dwellings with evergreens as a refuge for sylvan
spirits from the inclemency of winter. A Border proverb defines an
habitual story-teller as one that "lees never but when the hollen is
green." Several popular superstitions exist with respect to holly. In
the county of Rutland it is deemed unlucky to introduce it into a house
before Christmas Eve. In some English rural districts the prickly and
non-prickly kinds are distinguished as "he" and "she" holly; and in
Derbyshire the tradition obtains that according as the holly brought at
Christmas into a house is smooth or rough, the wife or the husband will
be master. Holly that has adorned churches at that season is in
Worcestershire and Herefordshire much esteemed and cherished, the
possession of a small branch with berries being supposed to bring a
lucky year; and Lonicerus mentions a notion in his time vulgarly
prevalent in Germany that consecrated twigs of the plant hung over a
door are a protection against thunder.
Among the North American species of _Ilex_ are _I. opaca_, which
resembles the European tree, the Inkberry, _I. (Prinos) glabra_, and
the American Black Alder, or Winterberry, _I. (Prinos) verticillata_.
Hooker (_Fl. of Brit. India_, i. 598, 606) enumerates twenty-four
Indian species of _Ilex_. The Japanese _I. crenata_, and _I.
latifolia_, a remarkably hardy plant, and the North American _I.
Cassine_, are among the species cultivated in Britain. The leaves of
several species of _Ilex_ are used by dyers. The member of the genus
most important economically is _I. paraguariensis_, the prepared
leaves of which constitute Paraguay tea, or MATE (q.v.). Knee holly is
_Ruscus aculeatus_, or butcher's broom (see BROOM); sea holly,
_Eryngium maritimum_, an umbelliferous plant; and the mountain holly
of America, _Nemopanthes canadensis_, also a member of the order
Ilicineae.
Besides the works above mentioned, see Louden, _Arboretum_, ii. 506
(1844).