44 THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



into a great many marked varieties, differing greatly in the 

 size and form of the leaves, the variation of their colour, 

 and so forth ; but even the common wild ivy plant of our 

 hedgerows and old walls exhibits a great difference in the 

 form of its foliage, the leaves being sometimes very large 

 and of very simple outline, heart-shaped or ovate, and 

 at other times small and acutely three-, five-, or even 

 seven-pointed. So striking is this difference that it was 

 long considered to indicate two quite distinct kinds.^ While 

 the ivy is still supported by wall or tree, the leaves are 

 of the lobed type, but when its support serves it no farther, 

 the branches shorten and form into large heads bearing 

 ovate undivided leaves, and at the ends of these branches 

 the flower clusters. These flowers are arranged in 

 spherical masses, each flower stem of the group springing 

 from one common centre. The flowers are small and 

 of a pale green. They contain ample store of honey in 

 their nectaries, and, flowering in October and November, 

 when little else is available, form a great centre of attraction 

 to multitudes of insects, from the lordly Red Admiral 



' Gerard, for instance, writing some two hundred and seventy years 

 ago, states, as beyond cavil, " there be two kiades of luy," and then, 

 however, proceeds to add yet another, the plant we all know now-a-days 

 as the Virginian Creeper. The reference is so interesting that we may 

 venture to quote it, though the plant can claim no place within the limits 

 of our title-page. " There is kept for nouelties sake in diuers gardens 

 a Virginian, by some, though vnfitly, termed a Vine, being indeed an luy. 

 The stalkes of this grow to a great heighth, if they be planted nigh anything 

 that may sustaine or beare them vp : and they take first hold by certaine 

 small tendrels vpon what body soeuer they grow, whether stone, boords, 

 bricke, yea glasse, and that so firmely that often times they will bring pieces 

 with them if you plucke them off. The leaues are large, consisting of 

 foure, five, or more particular leaues, each of them being long, and deeply 

 notched about the edges, so that they somewhat resemble those of the 

 Chesnut tree." 



