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CHINA MAIL CHRISTMAS SUPPLEMENT, 1929.
LOCAL SUBSTITUTES FOR HOLLY
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Red Drupes
CHRISTMAS, among the British and the bright red drupes of the holly.
other peoples of the West, is' celebrated Unfortunately the holy, Ilex aquifolium, by decorations in the house. Two plants does not grow in Hong Kong. Though beyond all others are used for these decora-South Eastern Asia is the land of the Nez tions mistletoe and holly. The origin of (we have no fewer than nine species of Ilex this custom and the superstitions connected growing in the Colony) none of them with the use of these plants is lost in answers exactly to the holly, or has to the mystery. The mistletoe, among the ancient European the wistful charm of the holly's classical peoples, gave the right of entrance prickly leaf. We naturally ask then, are to the next world and acted as a fertility there any local substitutes? and if so, what charm; it also formed a sacred plant among are they? the ancient Druids. Possibly the permission to kiss under the mistletoe may be a At least three of the species of Ilex remnant of this fertility charm; or it may which grow in the Colony have red drupes possibly be a survival of one of the ancient but none of them seems to us as attractive liberties of the Saturnalia. The use of holly as their European cousin Ilex aquifolium. seems to be as old as Father Christmas him-llez pubescens, a common local shrub, has an self.
abundance of red drupes, but the colour of the drupes is much darker than those of the holly, and the small pubescent leaves are very untidy-looking. In fact this is a poor decorative plant. One species of Ilex here has glorious scarlet drupes. It may possibly be Ilex graciliflora: if so, it is not very abundant. Much walking might have to be done to find it. It might be worth while to cultivate this plant for the Christ- mas consumption of Yule-loving Europeans. There are two or three other species of Ilex but none of them is very pretty; and the prettiest, flex asprella, has a black drupe.
Well-known Peculiarities
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Both these plants have certain well- known peculiarities. The mistletoe (Viscum abum) is the only member of the Loranthaceae which grows in Great Britain. The plant is dioecious, i.e. the sexes are separate. Not only so, but it is also a parasite and retains its glaucous rather golden green colour when its host seems to be dead. Thus it was to the ancients "The Golden Bough," the key to the kingdom of Hades. No wonder that it has remained to throw its glamour round Christmas-for Christmas is really a pagan feast, the legend that Christ was born on this day being only a myth devised to give the cloak of ecclesiastical sanction to a well-established pagan festival. The holly, Ilex aquifolium, is the only member of the genus Ilez found in Europe. It, too, strange to say is generally dioecious. Like the mistletoe it is an evergreen; and this alone in a country where there are so few evergreens would make it an object of attraction and interest. In addition to this the bright red drupes are medicinal and al- most poisonous. Few plants are more at- tractive to children in the excitement of Christmas than the rich green leaves and
THE LORE OF CHRISTMAS
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stockings to receive Santa Claus's good gifts down the chimney in the early hours of Christmas Day.
No Mistletoe Berries, No Kisses! Another very old Christmastide custom is that of kissing under the mistletoe. Many a maiden's cheek is red By lips and laughter thither led; And fluttering bosoms come and go Under the Druid mistletoe.
Several species of Ardisia (Myrsinaceae) | have gorgeous red berries and rather pretty leafage. Ardisia crispa and Ardisia pauciflora are perhaps the best of these. Unfortun- ately the umbel of berries grows underneath the leaves. This makes the use of the plant difficult for decorative purposes, as the berries are nearly always hidden. The leafage of Ardisia primulaefolia makes it unsuitable though it has beautiful berries.
Psychotria elliptica (Rubiaceae) is a very abundant shrub with red berries. But the plant even at its best is scraggy-looking and untidy. The berries are of a poor cheap type of red and fail off easily.
Oval-Shaped Red Berries Rauwolfia chinensis (Apocynaceae) has pretty oval-shaped red berries which look as if they were twinned, but these, too, fall off easily and have little resemblance to the holly berry.
Wikstroemia indica (Thymeliaceae) has also pretty red berries, but these come too early for Christmas and are extremely de- ciduous.
Probably better than any of these are a couple of species of Smilar (Liliaceae), Smilar China has beautiful umbels of red berries of a very rich hue. It has the ad- vantage, too, of being a graceful climber. It has just one disadvantage-it is very liberally supplied with rather nasty hooked claws which tear a person's hands and clothes unmercifully.
Probably the best substitute of all is Diplospora viridiflora (Rubiaceae). The berries of this tree grow close to the stem much as they do in the holly. The tree may be distinguished from an Ilex by the con- sistently opposite leaves, It is fairly abundant in the hilly district of the Colony and I have seen it used more than once as a Christmas decoration.
No Snow Here!
Were it not for the difficulty in eradicat- ing an old custom it might be better to drop the thought of home plants and take some new form of decorative greenery, easily obtainable and native to the district. After all, holly suggests snow and plum- pudding. But we haven't got the snow: and many of us have found that plum- pudding is better as a weapon of offence than as a life preserver. Perhaps in the future the joys and fun of Christmas in the Far East, for the European at all events, may weave themselves round a new group of fetishes, and leave the snow, the plum- pudding, the yule-log, the mistletoe and the holly for the Old Country.
A. H. C.
seem to have endowed the mistletoe with leaves, drops of Passion blood in its red mystic qualities. The modern young-fol- berries, and immortality in its ever-green- lowers of the Druids are not influenced by ness. Hence the "Holy" as well as the the Druidical reverence for the mistletoe: "Holly" tree. If you would ensure a pro- they are satisfied to regard it as an excuse sperous year for your family, say the super- for kissing, and were the mistletoe puri- stitious, you must use in your Christmas- tanically tabooed Christmas to them would tide decorations three kinds of holly-the be shorn of much of its charm. What prickly, the non-prickly, and the variegated. many young kissers of to-day do not under-In Derbyshire, if not in cther parts of the stand is that the Christmastide kissing country, they say that, according as the under the mistletoe must be organised pro-holly employed in the decorations is perly if it is to be followed by good fortune. For instance, there must be only one kiss for each berry on the suspended branch, a berry being removed for each kiss exchang-holly superstition-that it is unlucky to ed. It follows that kissing must cease when all the berries are gone when the branch is bare of them. If it doesn't, woe to the kissers!
مجھ
prickly or smooth, the master of the house- hold during the year following will be the husband or the wife! There is another
have holly in the house before Christmas Yes, the mistletoe was undoubtedly be
Eve. It is at that time that, if you desire queathed to us by the ancient Druids, who
to know what the future has in store, for deeply venerated the parasitic plant, for the
you, you should consult the holly leaves. reason that the mistletoe produces its
Place on the surface of water in a tub or a berries in clusters of three.on one stalk, Closely identified with the Christmas basin holly leaves on which are small bits and they had a remarkable reverence for the festival, for the adornment of homes, is the of lighted candle. If the desire of your number three. it was a Druidical custom holly, which poets have been won't to asso-heart is to be fulfilled in love the leaves to greet one another with a kiss of peaceciate with jollity. Yet it was held to will swim; if you are to be unlucky in love:
in the mistletoe's shadow. This fact would symbolise a crown of thorns in its prickly they will sink.
"Heigh-Ho! The Holly!"
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