182 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



H. canariensis (WillcL), which is a native of the Canary Isles, 

 Madeira, and the North of Africa, is said to have been found 

 wild in Ireland ; hut Mr. A. G. More informs me that he can 

 obtain no evidence of its occurrence, except where planted. 

 Dr. Seemann (Journ. Bot. 1864, p. 305) considers it a distinct 

 species, known by its uppermost leaves being cordate, its umbels 

 arranged in panicles (rarely and only in young plants in simple 

 racemes), and its pedicels and calyx l3eing covered with white stel- 

 late hairs, the hairs having from 13 to 15 rays. 



I do not find that the cordate upper leaves or the paniculately 



arranged nmbel occur in the so-called Irish ivy, so commonly 



planted in gardens ; and the rays of the stellate hairs vary from 



5 to 12, so it is probable that this is merely a variety of the 



common ivy, and not the plant intended by Dr. Seemann under the 



name of African ivy. ^y t 



•^ Common Ivy. 



French, Lierre Grimpant. German, Gemenier Epheu. 



The origin of the common English name of this plant, Ivy, is fully discussed by 

 Dr. Prior. He considers that the Ivy and the Yew are undoubtedly the same word, 

 and explains the source of confusion thus : — " The chamfepitys of Pliny," as we learn 

 from Parkinson, " was called in English ground pine and ground ivie, after the Latin 

 word zW But this name ground ivy had been assigned to another plant, which was 

 called in Latin hedera terrestris, and thus Ivy and hedera came to be regarded as equi- 

 valent terms. But there was again another plant that was also called hedera terrestris, 

 viz., the creeping form of Hedera Helix ; and as Ivy had become the equivalent of 

 hedera in the former case, so it did in this too, and eventually was appropriated to 

 the full-grown evergreen shrub so well known. The botanical names of the Yew are 

 so completely confused by older botanists with those of the Ivy, that dissimilar as are 

 the two trees, there can be no doubt that the origin of their names is identical. The 

 first observers of plants were not very accurate in their distinctions, and by a series of 

 errors, either in copying names or wrongly applying them, the Ivy and the Yew both 

 seem to owe their names originally to the Latin word ahiga, and miswritten by some 

 transcriber as ajuga. The specific name helix comes from eiktiv (eilein), to encompass or 

 turn about, in allusion to the twining habit of the plant. It is almost difficult to wi'ito 

 of the Ivy merely in a prosaic spirit, for its beautiful rich-coloured leaves, its graceful 

 form, and clinging twining habit, have in all ages associated it with sentiment and poetry. 

 The Ivy was well known to the Greeks and Romans, and there are many mythological 

 and traditional allusions to it in the writings of Greek and Roman authors. Its 

 Greek names were kktctoq (kissos) and kittoq (kittos), from Kissits or Cissus, the name of 

 a boy whom Bacchus is said to have changed into it. By the Romans it was called 

 hedera, a name adopted by modern botanists. By the ancients the Ivy was dedicated 

 to Bacchus, and his statues are generally found crowned with a wreath of its leaves ; 

 and as the favourite plant of the god of wine, its praises have been sung by almost all 

 poets, ancient and modern. Many reasons have been given for the consecration of this 

 plant to Bacchus. Some poets say it was because the Ivy had the power of dissipating 

 the fumes of wine ; others, because it was once his favourite boy Cissus ; and others, 

 because' the Ivy, if allowed to grow in vineyards, is supposed to kill the vines, and it 

 was doing acceptable service to that plant to tear up its enemy and wreath it into 



