1004 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART ITI. 
householder of taste may turn to a very good account. He has only to form 
projecting architraves of wire to his windows, and to place a pot of ivy in 
his window sills, or in a small balcony at the base of each jamb ; taking care to 
fix the pots securely, and to make a provision for supplying them regularly with 
water. In rooms, the ivy, when planted in boxes, and properly treated, forms 
a rustic screen, either for excluding the light of the sun during the day, or 
of a lamp or chandelier at night; and, in very large drawingrooms, plants 
in boxes or vases, trained on wire parasols or espaliers, such as those recom- 
mended for roses (see figs. 534. and 535.), will form a rustic canepy for small 
groups of parties, who may seat themselves under its shade, in the same 
manner as parties sit under orange trees in the public rooms of Berlin, and 
of other cities of the Continent. Where the view from the window of a town 
house is contracted or disagreeable, it may always be improved by plants of 
ivy, planted in boxes, and trained on espaliers, being placed within the room, 
at a sufficient distance from the window to prevent them from excluding the 
light, and yet sufficiently near to serve as a screen; or, by so disposing of 
plants on the outside as to conceal or disguise the disagreeable objects, and 
create an allusion to the country. One great advantage of the ivy, in small 
and suburban gardens, is, that by its berries it attracts the birds in early 
spring; and by its dense foliage it forms excellent situations for nests. A num- 
ber of birds build in it, from the blackbird and thrush to the blackcap and the 
sparrow, and even to the tomtit and wren. This plant is generally considered 
as highly injurious to trees, where it has climbed up and covered their stems. 
“ The ivy,” Gilpin observes, “has a root of his own, and draws nourishment 
from the ground; but his character is misrepresented, if his little feelers 
have not other purposes than that of merely showing an attachment to his 
potent neighbour. Shakspeare roundly asserts that he makes a property of 
him : — 
«° «He was 
The ivy, which had hid my princely trunk, 
And suck’d my verdure out.’ ”’ f 

GiLpIn, For. Scen., i. p. 15. 
The injurious effect of the ivy on trees has, however, been denied by various 
persons, and, among others, by Mr. Repton, who, in a paper on the subject in 
the Lin. Trans., contends that it is useful, by keeping their trunks warm. 
There can be no doubt but that, under certain circumstances, the warmth pro- 
duced by a covering of ivy may be favourable to vegetation ; and, when its 
stems ascend the trunk of a tree in parallel lines, without creeping or winding 
round it, so as to form a kind of network over the bark, it may remain there 
for a number of years without doing the tree any material injury. After a 
certain period, however, a network never fails to be formed ; and, as the trunk 
of the tree continues expanding, while this network remains stationary, the 
tree cannot fail to receive injury by being compressed by the stems of the ivy. 
Wherever this network is found on the smaller branches at the top of the 
tree, the tree is certain of being killed in a short time. In this case, as in most 
others, the opinions of the ancients and of modern foresters, both of which are 
unfavourable to the ivy, will be found to be correct. We have already men- 
tioned that ivy on the trunks of trees may easily be killed, by cutting through 
its stems close to the ground; in addition to which, its stems ought to be 
pulled off, or loosened from the trunk and branches of the tree; but, in 
deciding on this operation, Evelyn’s caution must not be forgotten, “ that 
trees long invested with it should not have it all at once removed, lest they 
should die from exposure to unaccustomed cold.” 
A variety of opinions prevail as to the use or injury of ivy on habitable 
buildings. Where the walls are well built, and do not contain such crevices 
as to admit of the fibrils becoming roots, and, of course, increasing in size, and 
tending to rupture the masonry, the ivy must be a protection to the wall from 
the weather ; and to the interior of the house, from the cold of winter and the 
heat of summer. On ruins it must also be a protection, except in cases where 
