402 plant's nattjeal histoet. [Book XVI 



It is a peculiarity of the white ivy to throw out arms from 

 the middle of the leaves, with which it invariably embraces any 

 object that may be on either side of it ; this is the case, too, 

 with walls, even though it should not be able to clasp them. 

 If the trunk is cut across in ever so many places, it will still 

 live and thrive, having as many fresh roots as it has arms, by 

 means of which it ensures safety and impunity, while at the 

 same time it sucks and strangles the trees to which it clings. 

 There are great differences also in the fruit of both the white 

 ivy and the black ; for in some of them the berry is so bitter 

 that birds will not touch it. There is an ivy also which grows 

 upright, 16 and stands without any support; being the only 

 one that does so among all the varieties, it has thence ob- 

 tained the distinctive name of " cissos." The ehamaecissos, 17 

 on the other hand, is never found except creeping upon the 

 ground. 



CHAP. 63. (35.) THE SMIL AX. 



Very similar to the ivy is a plant which first came from 

 Cilicia, but is now more commonly found in Greece, and 

 known by the name of smilax. 18 It has numerous thick stalks 

 covered with joints, and thorny branches of a shrub-like form : 

 the leaf resembles that of the ivy, but is not angular, while 

 from the foot-stalk it throws out tendrils ; the flower is white, 

 and has the smell of the lily. It bears clusters like those of 

 the wild vine and not the ivy, and of a reddish colour. The 

 larger berries contain three stones, the smaller but one only : 

 these berries are black and hard. This plant is looked upon 

 as ill-omened, and is consequently banished from all sacred 

 rites, and is allowed to form no part of chaplets ; having re- 

 ceived this mournful character from the maiden Smilax, who 

 upon her love being slighted by the youth Crocus, was trans- 

 formed into this shrub. The common people, being mostly 

 ignorant of this, not unfrequently take it for ivy, and pollute 

 their festivities with its presence ; for who, in fact, is unaware 



16 This is the case sometimes with the black ivy, the Hedera arborea of 

 C. Bauhin. Only isolated cases, however, are to be met with. 



17 There is an ivy of this kind, the Hedera humi repens of botanists ; 

 but most of the commentators are of opinion that it is the ground ivy, the 

 Glechoma hederacea of Linnaeus, that is spoken of. Sprengel takes it to 

 be the Anthirrinum Azarina, from which opinion, however, Fee dissents.. 



18 The Smilax aspera of Linnaeus; the sarsaparilla plant. 



