of an aged Ash Tree. 329 



of its foster-parent: and, accordingly, the effects of this 

 strangulation were plainly to be seen in the deep weals or 

 indentures imprinted in various parts* not merely of the bark, 

 but of the solid wood of the tree itself. The foliage, too, had, 

 in consequence, become scanty in quantity, and diminished in 

 luxuriance ; a circumstance, I may add, which served grealty 

 to heighten the picturesque effect of the object. The ash 

 foliage is at all times delicate and beautiful ; and in the present 

 instance, as it hung in light and airy festoons, backed and set 

 off by the sable masses of ivy from behind, it might have vied 

 in comparison with the choicest lace or needlework em- 

 broidered on a dark rich mantle of velvet. I have seen such 

 repeated instances of the palpable injury produced by ivy upon 

 timber trees, that, even putting aside the d priori probability 

 of the case, as well as the testimony of antiquity, I cannot but 

 feel surprise that the contrary opinion should ever have been 

 seriously entertained. The lovers of landscape, I think, 

 would be acting at least a more ingenuous part, were they un- 

 disguisedly to take up the defence of this charming evergreen 

 on its own merits alone, and endeavour to preserve it from 

 spoliation solely on the score of its intrinsic beauty and 

 ornamental qualities*, rather than have recourse to the un- 

 tenable position, that it does no injury (or even does good) to 

 the trees it decorates. f Let us grant (if it be so demanded of 

 us) that the ivy derives no nutriment, by means of its fibres 

 or tendrils, from the tree to which it clings (though whether 

 it may not do so in some slight degree may well be made a 

 question) ; still, it must be admitted that the root, especially 

 if it be a large one, impoverishes the soil more or less, by 

 taking up some portion of the moisture which would other- 

 wise go to the support of the timber tree. A dense impervious 

 covering of ivy, too, must, one would suppose, be prejudicial, 



* The following remarks are from Dr. Johnston's interesting Flora of 

 Berwick upon Tweed: — " St. Pierre has said he never saw the ivy on the 

 trunks of pines, firs, or other trees whose foliage lasts the whole year 

 round. [With us it frequently envelopes firs, pines, holly, and other ever- 

 greens. — IV. T. B.] It invests those only which are stripped by the hand 

 of winter ; and, when its protector has fallen a prey to death, it restores to 

 him again the honours of the forest, where he lives no longer." (p. 209.) 



" * Should aught be unlovely which thus can shed 

 Grace on the dying, and leaves on the dead ? ' 



Bernard Barton." (p. 64.) — J. D. 

 \ See a letter, in the 1 1th vol. of the Linnean Transactions, by H. Repton, 

 Esq., in which he contends " that ivy is not only less injurious to trees 

 than it is generally deemed, but that it is often beneficial." The facts 

 adduced of timber trees attaining to a very large size, though profusely 

 covered with ivy, are no conclusive proof of the beneficial effects of the 

 evergreen. Trees so circumstanced will often thrive, and attain a large 

 size ; not, however, in consequence of the ivy, but in spite of it. 



