hoc, a mallow), Althaea rosea, a perennial plant of the natural order Malvaceae, a native of the East, which has been cultivated in Great Britain for about three centuries. The ordinary hollyhock is single-blossomed, but the florists’ varieties have all double flowers, of white, yellow, rose, purple, violet and other tints, some being almost black. The plant is in its prime about August, but by careful management examples may be obtained in blossom from July to as late as November. Hollyhocks are propagated from seed, or by division of the root, or by planting out in rich sandy soil, in a close frame, with a gentle bottom heat, single eyes from woodshoots, or cuttings from outgrowths of the old stock or of the lateral offsets of the spike. The seed may be sown in October under cover, the plants obtained being potted in November, and kept under glass till the following April, or, if it be late-gathered, in May or June, in the open ground, whence, if required, the plants are best removed in October or April. In many gardens, when the plants are not disturbed, self-sown seedlings come up in abundance about April and May. Seedlings may also be raised in February or March, by the aid of a gentle heat, in a light and rich moist soil; they should not be watered till they have made their second leaves, and when large enough for handling should be pricked off in a cold frame; they are subsequently transferred to the flower-bed. Hollyhocks thrive best in a well-trenched and manured sandy loam. The spikes as they grow must be staked; and water and, for the finest blossoms, liquid manure should be liberally supplied to the roots. Plants for exhibition require the side growths to be pinched out; and it is recommended, in cold, bleak or northerly localities, when the flowering is over, and the stalks have been cut off 4 to 6 in. above the soil, to earth up the crowns with sand. Some of the finest double-flowered kinds of hollyhock do not bloom well in Scotland. The plant is susceptible of great modification under cultivation. The forms now grown are due to the careful selection and crossing of varieties. It is found that the most diverse varieties may be raised with certainty from plants growing near together.
The young shoots of the hollyhock are very liable to the attacks of slugs, and to a disease occasioned by a fungus, Puccinia malvacearum, which is a native of Chile, attained notoriety in the Australian colonies, and finally, reaching Europe in 1869, threatened the extermination of the hollyhock, the soft parts of the leaves of which it destroys, leaving the venation only remaining. It has been found especially hurtful to the plant in dry seasons. It is also parasitic on the wild mallows. The disease appears on the leaves as minute hard pale-brown pustules, filled with spores which germinate without a resting-period, but when produced late in the season may last as resting-spores until next spring. Spraying early in the season with Bordeaux mixture is an effective preventive, but the best means of treatment is to destroy all leaves as soon as they show signs of being attacked, and to prevent the growth of other host-plants such as mallows, in the neighbourhood. In hot dry seasons, red-spider injures the foliage very much, but may be kept at bay by syringing the plants frequently with plenty of clean water.
HOLLY SPRINGS, a city and the county-seat of Marshall
county, Mississippi, U.S.A., in the N. part of the state, 45 m.
S.E. of Memphis. Pop. (1890) 2246; (1900) 2815 (1559
negroes); (1910) 2192. Holly Springs is served by the Illinois
Central and the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham (Frisco
System) railways. The city has broad and well-shaded streets,
and a fine court-house and court-house square. It is the seat
of Rust University (opened in 1867), a Methodist Episcopal
institution for negroes; of the Mississippi Synodical College
(1905; Presbyterian), for white girls; and of the North Mississippi
Agricultural Experiment Station. The principal industries
are the ginning, compressing and shipping of cotton, and the
manufacture of cotton-seed oil, but the city also manufactures
pottery and brick from clay obtained in the vicinity, and has
an ice factory, bottling works and marble works. The municipality
owns and operates its water-works and electric-lighting
plant. Holly Springs was founded in 1837 and was chartered
as a city in 1896. Early in December 1862 General Grant
established here a large depot of supplies designed for the use
of the Federal army while on its march toward Vicksburg, but
General Earl Van Dorn, with a brigade of cavalry, surprised
the post at daylight on the 20th of this month, burned the supplies
and took 1500 prisoners. Holly Springs was the home and is
the burial-place of Edward Cary Walthall (1831–1898), a Democratic
member of the United States Senate in 1885–1894 and
in 1895–1898.
HOLMAN, JAMES (1786–1857), known as the “Blind
Traveller,” was born at Exeter on the 15th of October 1786.
He entered the British navy in 1798 as first-class volunteer, and
was appointed lieutenant in April 1807. In 1810 he was invalided
by an illness which resulted in total loss of sight. In consideration
of his helpless circumstances he was in 1812 appointed one
of the royal knights of Windsor, but the quietness of such a
life harmonized so ill with his active habits and keen interests
that he requested leave of absence to go abroad, and in 1819,
1820 and 1821 journeyed through France, Italy, Switzerland,
the parts of Germany bordering on the Rhine, Belgium and the
Netherlands. On his return he published The Narrative of a
Journey through France, &c. (London, 1822). He again set out
in 1822 with the design of making the circuit of the world, but
after travelling through Russia into Siberia, he was suspected
of being a spy, was arrested when he had managed to penetrate
1000 m. beyond Smolensk, and after being conducted to the
frontiers of Poland, returned home by Austria, Saxony, Prussia
and Hanover. He now issued Travels through Russia, Siberia,
&c. (London, 1825). Shortly afterwards he again set out to
accomplish by a somewhat different method the design which
had been frustrated by the Russian authorities; and an account
of his remarkable achievement was published in four volumes
in 1834–1835, under the title of A Voyage round the World,
including Travels in Africa, Asia, Australasia, America, &c.,
from 1827 to 1832. His last journeys were through Spain,
Portugal, Moldavia, Montenegro, Syria and Turkey; and he
was engaged in preparing an account of this tour when he died
in London on the 29th of July 1857.
HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL (1809–1894), American writer
and physician, was born on the 29th of August 1809 at Cambridge,
Mass. His father, Abiel Holmes (1763–1837), was a Calvinist
clergyman, the writer of a useful history, Annals of America,
and of much very dull poetry. His mother (the second wife of
Abiel) was Sarah Wendell, of a distinguished New York family.
Through her Dr Holmes was descended from Governors Thomas
Dudley and Simon Bradstreet of Massachusetts, and from her
he derived his cheerfulness and vivacity, his sympathetic
humour and wit. From Phillips (Andover) Academy he entered
Harvard in the “famous class of ’29,” made further illustrious
by the charming lyrics which he wrote for the anniversary
dinners from 1851 to 1889, closing with the touching “After
the Curfew.” After graduation he studied law perfunctorily
for a year and dabbled in literature, winning the public ear by
a spirited lyric called forth by the order to destroy the old
frigate Constitution. These verses were sung all over the land,
and induced the Navy Department to revoke its order and save
the old ship. Turning next to medicine, and convinced by a
brief experience in Boston that he liked it, he went to Paris in
March 1833. He studied industriously under Louis and other
famous physicians and surgeons in France, and in his vacations
visited the Low Countries, England, Scotland and Italy. Returning
to Boston at the close of 1835, filled with a high professional
ambition, he sought practice, but achieved only
moderate success. Social, brilliant in conversation, and a writer
of gay little poems, he seemed to the grave Bostonians not sufficiently
serious. He won prizes, however, for professional papers,
and lectured on anatomy at Dartmouth College. He wrote
two papers on homoeopathy, which he attacked with trenchant
wit; also a valuable paper on the malarial fevers of New England.
In 1843 he published his essay on the Contagiousness of Puerperal
Fever, which stirred up a fierce controversy and brought upon
him bitter personal abuse; but he maintained his position
with dignity, temper and judgment; and in time he was honoured
