CULTIVATION OF GREEN-HOUSE PLANTS. 



255 



timately Formed by it, prevents the tree 

 from expanding, and injures, if it do not 

 kill it. But we should prefer an ivy clad 

 tree for twenty years to a bare one for 

 thirty. Buildings are not injured by it, 

 except where shoots can find their way 

 through cracks or crevices, where it may 

 expand and cause an extended opening. 



Bacchus is represented crowned with ivy, 

 some poets say because it has the effect of 

 dissipating the fumes of wine. It is con- 

 sidered symbolical of friendship, for the 

 closeness of its adherence to the tree on 

 which it has once fixed itself. Its con- 

 stancy has rendered it a favorite device for 

 seals ; some of the best of which are a 

 sprig of ivy, with the motto — " I die where 

 I attach myself;" and a fallen tree, still 

 covered with ivy, with the words — " Even 

 ruin cannot separate us." 



To attain a large size, it requires a good 

 soil; it grows best in the shade, and in a 

 northern rather than a southern exposure. 

 Unless the soil is kept in a uniform state 

 of moisture, and shaded, it will not root 

 readily ; we therefore recommend its pur- 

 chase in pots, where they can be had. 

 Some specimens of old ivy trunks measure 

 nearly twenty inches in diameter. When 



slips are planted, do not bury them deep ; 

 rather lay them near the surface. 



We have not exhausted the subject, but 

 fear to extend this article, which is the re- 

 sult of some experience, aided by the re- 

 marks of Mr. Loudon, in his Arboretum 

 Britannicum, — a work remarkable for its 

 extraordinary research ; every topic, con- 

 nected with arboriculture and floriculture, 

 being treated in a manner that leaves little 

 to be desired. The difficulty is, that it is 

 so expensive. An abridgment, however, 

 has been published in London, which every 

 frequenter of a garden should possess, if he 

 cannot compass the larger copy, the cost of 

 which is about fifty dollars, — four large 

 volumes of text, and four smaller of plates. 



[Our correspondent has not overrated the 

 merits of the finest of all climbers. Perhaps 

 the finest specimen in America is at Sun- 

 nyside, the cottage of Washington Irving, 

 on the Hudson, the walls of which are 

 wreathed and covered with it, as with the 

 richest drapery. North of this, the ivy is 

 rather tender, and will only succeed on the 

 north sides of buildings, or walls, or under 

 the shade of trees, where it is protected 

 from the sun in winter, which kills it by 

 sudden thawing after severe frost. Ed.] 



ON THE CULTIVATION OF GREEN-HOUSE PLANTS. 



BY R. B. LEUCHARS, NEW-HAVEN. 



The season is now at hand, when plants 

 that have been previously stowed away into 

 summer receptacles must be attended to, 

 and arranged in their winter quarters. And 

 the inquiry will come home to every gar- 

 dener, who has plants under his charge, 

 which plants are those that endure a greater 

 severity of cold than others ? and why is it 



that a plant will at one time survive a given 

 amount of frost, and at another time be 

 killed? Why is it, also, that the points of 

 the shoots of certain plants are killed by a 

 slight frost, while no other part of the plant 

 sustains injury? These questions are pure- 

 ly practical, are exceedingly interesting, and 

 are worthy of our candid consideration. 



