IVY 59 
The flowers are polygamous, and the anthers are mature first, 
though some plants are homogamous, the stigma and anthers ripening 
together. The petals are fugacious or drop, and the flower is yellowish- 
green. Beetles visit it as well as flies and wasps. The stamens equal 
the corolla, and are turned back. The anthers are divided into two 
nearly halfway below, and incumbent or lying down. The style is 
short, the stigma simple, terminal. There is abundant honey. The 
flowers are sterile to their own pollen. 
The fruit is edible, and the seeds are dispersed by animals. It 
remains dormant during the winter, not ripening till the spring. 
Ivy is usually a woodland climber, and is a humus-lover, requiring 
humus soil. 
Ivy is a food plant for the beetles Ochina hedere, Grammoptera 
ruficornis, Anobium striatum, Lepturus testaceus, Pogonocherus den- 
tatus, the Lepidoptera Holly Blue (Polyommatus argiolus), Old Lady 
(Vania maura), Gothic (Nena typica), Swallow-tailed Moth (Urof- 
leryx sambucata), Tortrix forsteriana, the Homoptera Zhammnotettex 
Splendidula, Zygina tile, the Heteroptera Schirus bicolor, Derephysia 
foliaceus, Plovaria vagabunda. 
Fledera, Pliny, is Latin for Ivy, and efx, Pliny, was another 
Latin name for it. 
Ivy is called Benewith-tree, Bentwood, Bindwood, Eevy, Ground 
Ivy, Hyven, Ivin, Ivory, Ivy, Barren, Black, Creeping, Small Ivy, 
Wood-bind. It was called Bindwood possibly because of the hold it 
takes. The small-leaved form growing on banks, &c., does not flower, 
hence the name Barren Ivy. 
This plant was said to reveal witches. ‘To pipe in an ivy leaf” 
is to engage in a futile pursuit. ‘“ An owl in an ivy bush” denotes 
union of wisdom with conviviality. An ivy bush was a common tavern 
sign, giving rise to the saying, ‘Good wine needs no bush”. It was 
sacred to Bacchus. In language it is the emblem of confiding love 
and fidelity. 
According to Cornish tradition the beautiful Iseult, unable to 
endure the loss of the brave Tristan, died of a broken heart, and was 
buried in the same church, but by order of the king the two graves 
were placed at a distance from each other. Soon, however, there burst 
forth from the tomb of Tristan a branch of ivy and another from the 
grave of Iseult, these shoots gradually growing upwards, until at last 
the lovers, represented by the clinging ivy, were again united beneath 
the vaulted roof of heaven. 
It is largely used in Christmas decorations. It is useful for orna- 
