IVY TRIBE 85 



Pliny had said, many centuries earlier, that Ivy lierries taken before wine 

 prevented its intoxicating effects ; and the bacchanalian fillet of ancient times, 

 as well as the later use of the Ivy bough as the sign of a tavern, were both 

 doubtless founded on some of these notions respecting the effect of the plant. 

 Sir Henry Ellis, in his notes to " Brand's Antiquities," brings several passages 

 from old writers to prove that, a few centuries since, Ivy hung over a door 

 signified that wine was sold within. An allusion to this old custom is 

 pleasantly made by Braithwaite, in his "England's Parnassus," published in 

 1600— 



" I hang no Ivy out to sell my wine." 



And in Vaughan's " Golden Grove " the following passage occurs : " Like as 

 an Ivy bush put forth at a vintrie is not the cause of wine, but a signe that 

 ■wine is to be sold there ; so likewise if we see smoke in a chimney, we know 

 that fire is there, albeit the smoke is not the cause of the fire." Coles, in his 

 "Introduction to the Knowledge of Plants," says, " Box and Ivy last long 

 green, and therefore vintners make their garlands thereof ; though, perhaps, 

 Ivy is the rather used because of the antipathy between it and wine." The 

 Ivy is still used, because of its evergreen nature, in dressing churches and 

 houses at Christmas ; and that it has long been so employed is certain from 

 an old Christmas carol in the British Museum, in which the respective merits 

 of this plant and the holly are compared. 



■ ' Ivy hath berys as black as any slo ; 

 There come the owle, and ete hem as she goo : 

 Holy hath byrdys, a full fayre flok, 

 The nightingale, the poppyngy, the gayntyle lavyrok." 



The ancients generally had so great an esteem for the Ivy, that we 

 wonder not at the disappointment of Alexander the Great, because he could 

 not make the Ivy of Greece grow near Babylon ; it was consecrated to Apollo ; 

 Bacchus had his brows and spears decked with its leaves ; and the people of 

 Thrace wore it garlanded about their armour. The Ivy crown was the meed 

 of the poet, and wreaths of Ivy were presented by the priests of Greece to 

 the newly-married couple — meet emblem as it was of undying love, amid the 

 ravages of time and the blasts of adversity. Modern physicians recognise in 

 the plant none of those properties which it was believed to possess, but 

 consider the berries as emetic. In the south of Europe and north of Africa, 

 an exudation is found on the old trunks of the Ivy, called ivy gum, which is 

 found to be stimulant, and is sometimes substituted for Gum Bassora. It is 

 used as a remedy for toothache, and contains more resin and lignum than 

 gum. Walker says of the resin which exudes from some of our old Ivy stems 

 when wounded, that it renders bait attractive to fish. Thin slices of Ivy wood 

 are used in filtering liquids, and the roots are employed by leather-cutters 

 for sharpening their knives. 



The Ivy is confined to temperate regions, and is more or less common in 

 all the countries of Europe. The French call it Lierre ; the Germans, Ejihcu; 

 and the Dutch have for it the amusingly expressive name of Klimop. The 

 Italians call it Edera ; the Spaniards, Hiedra. It is not indigenous to Russia, 

 but is called there Bljustsch. Mr. E. P. Thompson, in his "Life in Russia," 



