106 BRITISH EVERGREENS. 



The Blaclcstart, (Phoenicura Tithys.) — Two oi* three Blackstarts were observed 

 flying about our hill on the 4th. of Kovember, and we noticed several during 

 November and December, all in similar plain plumage. The only adult male in 

 mature plumage I have yet met with was shot on the 16th. of iS'ovember, 1846. 



Do the young males retain their plain garb till the ensuing spring? 



East Looe, February 21st., 1854. 



BRITISH EVERGREENS.— No. 4. 



BY. J. Mc'iNTOSH, ESQ. 



C Continued from Vol. III., ^mge 248.^ 



Hedera, {The Ivy,) Pentandria Monogynia. 



"Dark creeping Ivy with thy berries brown, 

 That fondly twists on ruins all thine own." 



Hedera Helix, L. — The common Ivy is a free-born shrub to every country 

 of Europe, from the south of Sweden to the Mediterranean Sea, and from 

 Ireland to Siberia. It is also found in the north of Africa, in Asia, on the 

 mountains of India, Japan, and in China; it does not exist in America or 

 in Australia, except by cultivation. Kalm says that he saw Ivy but once in 

 North America, against a stone building, and conjectures that it had been 

 brought from Europe, and planted there. Royle says that the variety with 

 yellow berries, {Hedera Helix chrysocarpa,) is the most common on the Hima- 

 layas, and may be seen clinging to the rocks, or clasping the Oak. Thunberg, 

 who first observed it in Japan, remarks that the leaves are not lobed. The 

 Ivy was well known to the Greeks and the Romans; its Greek names were 

 Kissos and Kittos, from Kissos or Cissus, the name of a boy whom Bacchus 

 is said to have changed into it. By the Romans it was called Hedera, which 

 name it still retains. Ovid gives it the very appropriate epithet of "fiexipes," 

 (Met. X. 99,) twiny footed. Virgil calls it wandering or 'straggling "errantes 

 ederas, (Eel. iv. 19.) Catullus describes its manner of growth with great beauty 

 of language, 



"As clasping Ivy shoots its sprays 

 Around the tree in wanton maze." — Ixi. 34. 



Horace gives a similar representation of it — 



"More close than Ivy girds the lofty oak, 

 With pliant arms adhering." 



And Ovid adds the circumstance of its forming knots by the reflection of 

 its branches, and likewise mentions its bunches of berries — 



"The oars by loops of creeping Ivy bound 

 Are held; its clusters fill the sails around." — Met. iii. 664. 



The ancients held Ivy in great esteem; it was consecrated to Bacchus, who 



