110 BRITISH EVKRGREEN3. 



The berries are attractive to many of our early spring birds, and its dense 

 foliage affords an excellent situation for the nests of the Blackbird, Thrush, 

 Wren, Blackcap, Sparrow, Tomtit, Robin, Jay, Wood Pigeons, Owls, Jackdaws, 

 and the various Finches. Ivy was formerly included in the English Materia 

 Medica, as it was in that of the Greeks, and still is in that of India. The 

 berries are caustic and purgative, and the substance which is called hederine, 

 which is now in use in India, is said to be aperient, resolvative, and balsamic. 

 The wood is soft and porous, and in the south of Europe it is used by the 

 turner. The roots are employed by leather-cutters to whet their knives on; 

 and curiously-polished cups, boxes, and also tables of great value are made 

 from them. A decoction of the leaves dyes hair black, and it is said to form 

 a principal ingredient in the composition sold to prevent hair from turning 



The Common Ivy is a well known plant, unjustly considered parasitical. 

 In its infant, or very youthful state, it has spear-shaped leaves, and bears 

 neither flowers nor fruit, and was called by old botanists, Hedera humi repens, 

 (Ivy creeping on the ground.) At a more advanced state it bears five-lobed 

 leaves, climbs on trees and walls, and is barren: in this stage it was called 

 Hedera major sterilis, (Greater Barren Ivy.) In its next, or more mature 

 state, it sends forth three-lobed leaves, rising above its supports, and flowering; 

 it was then called Hedera arhorea, (Tree Ivy;) but when old its leaves are 

 entire, and it was known as the Hedera Poetica, or Poet's Ivy. After this the 

 branches with old age droop, grow dry, wither, and become covered, as well 

 as the trunk, with moss; first one branch decays, then another, till the whole 

 tree moulders away, and "the place thereof knoweth it no more." 



The following list contains the species and varieties at present known, though 

 there are more than fifty other species described in "Dons Miller," vol. iii.; 

 they are, however, trees from the tropics, and belong to the genus Aralia: — 

 Hedera Helix. — Common Ivy. In Pantgla.ss Park, South Wales, there is the 

 famous Ffynongoleh Ivy growing on an oak tree, with a 

 straight stem, six feet in length, and three feet in circum- 

 ference: the stem of the Ivy is independent of the stem of 

 oak, with deeply furrowed bark, like an oak. On a cottage, 

 in the town of Morpeth, Northumberland, there is, or was, a 

 fine specimen, considered to be nearly a century old. At 

 Great Canford, in Dorset, there is a magnificent specimen, 

 covering the beautiful and interesting old kitchen of John of 

 Gaunt, which must be more than a century old. Robert 

 Bloomfield tells us that the largest Ivy he ever saw was at 

 Ragland Castle, which he says "set iron and stone at defiance." 

 Of varieties of Hedera Helix we have the following, which are to be found 

 in the nurseries and gardens: — 



Hedera Helix vulgaris. — This is the commonest form of the Ivy throughout 

 Europe in a wild state. 



