The holly and the lvy

摘要

There was no native English spruce, pine or fir. Pinus sylvestris (Scot's pine) as the name suggests was mostly confined to Scotland. Holly (Ilex aquifolium) would have been the only widespread and welcoming evergreen across most of the English winterlandscape. Two native conifer oddities (juniper and yew) were localised leaving holly as the only commonly-occurring evergreen tree. There was still common climbing ivy (Hedera helix) a fast growing evergreen vine with ability to transform bare deciduous trees like oak and ash into columns of dark solid green. Not surprisingly both holly and ivy featured strongly in mid-winter pagan festivals and folklore, to be absorbed and incorporated later into Christian yuletide celebrations.