400 PLTNY's NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XVI. 



it in Media, but to no purpose ; and that Alexander, in con- 

 sequence of the rarity of this plant, had himself crowned 4 

 with it, after the example of Father Liber, when returning 

 victorious with his army from India : and at the present day 

 even, it is used to decorate the thyrsus of that god, and the 

 casques and bucklers employed by the nations of Thrace in 

 their sacred ceremonials. The ivy is injurious 5 to all trees 

 and plants, and makes its way through tombs and walls; it 

 forms a haunt much frequented by serpents, for its refreshing 

 coolness; so that it is a matter for astonishment that there 

 should have been such remarkable veneration for this plant. 



The two principal kinds in the ivy, as in other plants, are 

 the male tree, and the female. 6 The male is said to have a 

 larger trunk than the female, and a leaf that is harder and 

 more unctuous, with a flower nearly approaching to purple : 

 indeed, the flower of both the male and female tree strongly 

 resembles the wild 7 -rose, were it not destitute of smell. ^ Each 

 of these kinds of ivy is divided into three other varieties ; 

 the white 8 ivy, the black, 9 and a third known as the helix. 10 

 These varieties are again subdivided into others, _ as there is 

 one in which the fruit only is white, and another in which it 

 is only the leaf that is so. In those which have a white fruit, 

 the berry in some cases is closely packed and large, the clusters, 

 which are known as " corymbi," being of a spherical form. 

 So, too, with the selenitium, which has a smaller berry, and 

 fewer clusters ; and the same is the case with the black ivy. 

 One kind has a black seed, and another a seed of a saffron 11 

 colour — it is this last that poets use for their chaplets, 12 and 

 the leaves of it are not so black as in the other kinds : by some 



4 Bacchus, after the alleged conquest hy him of India, was said to 

 have returned crowned with ivy, and seated" in a car drawn by tigers. 



5 It is a mistake to suppose 'that the ivy exhausts the juices of trees. 

 Its tendrils fasten upon the cortical fissures ; and, if the tree is hut small, 

 its development is apt to be retarded thereby. It is beneficial, rather 

 than destructive, to walls. 



6 This plant is really monoecious or androgynous. 



7 The Rosa Eglanteria. 



8 The Hedera helix of Linnaeus, or, possibly, a variety of it with varie- 

 gated leaves. 



9 The Hedera arborea of C. Bauhin, the common ivy. 



10 The Hedera major sterilis of C. Bauhin. 



11 The first variety of the common ivy, the Hedera helix of Linnaeus. 



12 A wreath of ivy was the usual prize in the poetic contests. 



