IVY TRIBE 83 



they take no nourishment from the plant on which they hang ; it only 

 supports its weakness by clinging to its stronger neighbour. 



Many timber trees covered with Ivy attain a large size, yet we cannot say 

 of the plant that it is not injurious to some of the trees which sustain it. 

 There are many cases in which the ivy-band clasps too closely, and both 

 prevents the further growth of the tree and injures it by indenting its bark. 

 The Rev. W. T. Bree comnuinicated, some years since, to a scientific journal 

 some facts relating to the fall of an aged ash, which sufficiently proved the 

 power of the Ivy to injure living trees. This tree had, apparently, at some 

 period been pollarded early, or lopped at about eighteen feet from the ground ; 

 and at that time the trunk had for many years been partially hollow, and in 

 a state of decay. It retained its hold in the earth by one large branch only 

 of its roots, aided hy the stem of the Ivy, which was nearly a foot in diameter, 

 and which, springing up directly on the opposite side, clasped the trunk, and 

 acted as a prop to keep it in an erect position. " Moreover," says Mr. Bree, 

 " the Ivy towards the very top of the tree formed so large a head of massive 

 and persistent foliage as to occasion the wind to have additional power 

 against it, and cause the vessel, as it were, to carry too great a press of sail. 

 In order to give some idea of the magnificence of this individual specimen 

 of Ivy, the finest perhaps, on the whole, out of many extraordinary fine 

 ones on the premises, I may mention that the men employed to cut up and 

 clear away the windfall calculated that there was at least enough of the 

 evergreen to form a good waggon-load or more, which now, alas ! served no 

 better purpose than to feed the sheep, to whom the shrub affords a favourite 

 and wholesome repast." This tree afforded incontestable proof of the injurious 

 effects of the close pressure of the Ivy ; for its stems were tightly laced and 

 plaited together, and in some places literally tied in hard knots around the 

 smaller branches of its foster-parent. The effects were to be seen in the deep 

 weals or indentures imprinted on various parts, not merely of the trunk, but 

 of the solid wood of the tree itself ; and the foliage had in consequence 

 become very scanty, though portions hung still among the sable mass of Ivy 

 in light and airy festoons. Mr. Bree adds that he has seen such palpable 

 injury produced by Ivy upon timber trees, that even putting aside the a priori 

 probability of the case, as well as the testimony of antiquity, he cannot but 

 be greatly surprised that a contrary opinion should ever have been seriously 

 entertained. Though the Ivy takes no nutriment from the tree by its peg- 

 like supports, yet the root at its base must impoverish the soil by imbibing 

 its moisture ; and the dense covering, though affording some winter shelter, 

 yet would serve to deprive the tree of some of that light and air which one 

 would suppose must be beneficial to it. 



Few have noticed the aspects of nature and vegetation more accurately, 

 few have loved them better, or written of them more pleasantly, than 

 Bishop Mant. His beautiful volumes on the Months commend themselves 

 to all naturalists and botanists by their truth ; while the generous and 

 tender sentiment, and the tone of elevated piety which breathes throughout, 

 must make them interesting to a large class of readers. Referring to the 

 subject of our present remarks, Bishop Mant says — 



11—2 



