Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/787

 HOLLYHOCK 769 unged in the ground during summer and re- ved to a cellar or other shelter for the win- r. In Europe the holly is used for an orna- ental hedge ; it forms an impenetrable bar- r, but is of too slow growth for a mere pro- sting hedge. There are in England many fine specimens of holly screens, 20 ft. high, and filled with dense foliage from the very bot- tom. The dark persistent leaves, against which bright scarlet berries show in fine contrast,
 * e the holly a favorite plant for Christmas

corations; it is said to have been used for is purpose by the early Christians in Rome, d is in Europe still the plant chiefly employ- in churches. Large quantities of the native oily are brought each year from Long Island and southern New Jersey to the New York market for the same use. The wood of the holly is remarkably white, except that at the centre of old trees, which is brown ; it has a fine grain and a satiny lustre that well adapt it to ornamental work; it is used for small carved and turned articles, for whip and other handles, for inlaid work, and for various other purposes requiring a white, fine-grained wood. It receives dyes of various kinds readily, and much of what passes for ebony is the wood of the holly dyed black. Bird lime was formerly made from the mucilaginous matter furnished by the bark when boiled and fermented. The berries are purgative and emetic, and a decoc- tion of the bark is sometimes used as a demul- cent. The common holly is raised from seeds, which are kept in a rot heap mixed with earth for a year, and then sown ; the finer varieties are propagated by budding or grafting them in the usual manner upon these seedlings. The other native evergreen species of ilex are the /. Cassine (see YAUPON), /. Ddhoon, and L glair a (see INKBERRY), which are shrubs with serrate or toothed, not spiny leaves. The Dahoon holly, not found north of Virginia, has leaves varying from oblong to linear-oblong, sharply serrate, downy beneath. A narrow- leaved form has been called 7. myrtifolia. The deciduous species of ilex were formerly placed in a separate genus, prinos, but modern botanists include them in ilex; the most im- portant of these are noticed under WINTER- BERRY. A South American species, /. Para- guay ensis, is the Paraguay tea. (See MATE.) HOLLYHOCK (althaea rosect), an ornamental plant of the order malvacece, introduced into English gardens from Syria in 1573. In warm countries it is a perennial, but with us it is a biennial with large, rounded, heart-shaped, an- gled, or lobed, rough leaves, and a stem 6 ft. or more high, upon the upper portion of which are placed the nearly sessile large flowers, so closely together as to form a dense spike 3 ft. or more in length. The calyx, of five sepals, is subtended by an involucre of several bracts, united at the base, giving the appearance of a double calyx ; the petals are five, obcordate and united at the base with the stamineal col- umn, which consists of united filaments, and is anther-bearing at the top ; pistils several, their ovaries united in a ring around a central axis from which they fall away when ripe in as many one-seeded carpels as there were styles. Ihe original hollyhock was single, and of a rose or purplish color, a form now rarely seen. No plant of our gardens has been more im- proved by cultivation than this; semi-double flowers are very common, and the choicer kinds have the flower completely filled with petals and form hemispherical masses of great beauty. Even in the most double forms the original five petals remain unchanged, often showing as a narrow border around the central petals, which are much crowded, crimped, and folded, and of a delicate crape-like texture. In color a great change has been effected also; we now have white, shades of yellow, pink running through various shades of red to pur- ple, the latter being in some so dark as to be called black. Not only are there self-colored Dwarf Double Hollyhock. flowers, but those in which the tints are va- ried by streaks, veining, and shading, and some- times the under sides of the petals are of a dif- ferent color from the upper. On account of the size and showy character of its flowers, the hollyhock is well adapted to garden deco- ration, and is usually planted where it can be seen from a distance ; if the flower spikes are relieved by a background of green, their effect is much enhanced. Some of the more delicate- ly tinted ones are often used by florists in ma- king up large bouquets and floral decorations ; the central portion of the flower is furnished with an artificial stem, and when worked in with other flowers those unfamiliar with the matter would not suspect its real nature. How- ever double a hollyhock may be, it still remains partially fertile, and seeds from the finer kinds, if they have not been fertilized through the agency of insects by pollen from inferior sort?, will reproduce the variety with considerable