OCTOBEE. 495 



Ivy may be well considered as a curious kind of un- 

 derwood, seeing that it is a most vigorous climber, 

 and also one of the best possible carpets for the 

 ground under large trees. It kills nearly all sorts 

 of weeds and other undergrowth vegetation where it 

 assumes the lead, and creeping along the ground may 

 derive its chief nutriment far from the barren place 

 which it thus covers. It proceeds along the ground 

 till meeting with some friendly tree it seeks from it a 

 prop on which to lean, giving in return a profusion of 

 glossy evergreen foliage pleasant to contemplate. It 

 certainly takes no sustenance from the tree it covers, 

 and it has thence been considered as doing no harm, 

 and kind Mr WATEETOIST ever ready with a good word 

 for bird or plant, says that "it is not in a condition to 

 compress injuriously the expansive powers of the tree 

 proportionally stronger than its own." Certainly not 

 at first, but as it is a partner for life when once the 

 union is proclaimed, it obtains a higher ascendancy 

 and firmer grasp every year, its original twining stem 

 has become a huge bole, and its compressing branches 

 like serpents twist and twine around every branch of 

 the tree it is established upon, and its " marriageable 

 arms" will take no denial it reigns supreme as an 

 ivy tree, and the original stump has become a mere 

 peg for the ivy to disport itself upon at will, an 

 embrace from which there is no escape while the 

 tenacious climber continues to exist. "A rare old 

 plant is the Ivy green." 



Once more we turn towards our garden pales, where 

 in the shrubbery the Arbutus (A. unedo), gives us a 

 last glance at floral beauty, its flowers of the purest 

 lustre mingling with its pendant ruby strawberry-like 



