No Christmas is Christmas truly without at least a few branches of the
evergreen holly of the South, whose leathery, spiny-pointed leaves are
brightened by clusters of red berries. Every year, hundreds of crates and
boxes of these holly branches are shipped north from the woods of
Alabama, and other Southern states. Many people make their living by
cutting loads of these branches, and hauling them to the shipping sheds
where they are packed and put onto the railroad. The business has grown
so rapidly within the past twenty-five years that holly trees are
becoming very scarce. It has never occurred to those who cut down and
strip the trees that it takes years to grow new ones, and that nobody is
planting for the future.
Holly wood is white, and very close-grained. It is admirable for tool
handles, whipstocks, walking sticks, and for the blocks on which wood
engravings are made. The living trees are planted for hedges, and for
ornament. The leaves are evergreen, and the berries add brightness and
warmth to the shrubbery border when snow covers the ground.
Although it reaches its greatest size, and is most commonly found in
Southern woods, this little tree follows the coast as far north as Long
Island. I have found it much higher than my head, growing wild on the
sand bar that separates Great South Bay from the ocean, east of New York
Harbour. Further north, it is occasionally found, but in stunted sizes,
and it is easily winter-killed.
The holly of Europe, which has brightened the English Christmas for
centuries, has a far more deeply cleft and spiny leaf than ours. Beside
it, our holly leaves and berries are dull, and dark-coloured. The whole
tree lacks the brightness of the European species. Hedges of this
lustrous-leaved holly shut in many an English garden, and their bright
berries glow cheerfully through the grey, sunless, winter days. No wonder
the gardeners frown upon the little thrushes that feed upon these
berries, thus robbing the garden of one of its chief winter charms.
Three other American hollies are found as shrubby trees in our Eastern
woods, but none of them is evergreen, and the trees are not numerous in
any locality. We shall oftenest see the species known as the winterberry,
whose abundant red berries remain untouched by the birds, until late in
the spring. Many of these fruit-laden branches are gathered in the wild,
and sold in cities for Christmas decorations. Sprays of these berries are
often added to the evergreen holly branches when their own berries are
scarce.
Christmas holly is something we cannot do without. As the supply grows
less, the price will mount higher. Then will come a time when it is
profitable to raise these trees in quantities, and holly farming will be
practised in favourable localities in the Southern states. But that time
has not yet come.