VINES AND CLIMBING PLANTS. 31£ 



of their former richness, the crumbling fragments that are 

 fast tottering to decay : — 



" The Ivy, that staunchest and firmest friend, 

 That hastens its succoring arm to lend 

 To the ruined fane where in youth it sprung. 

 And its pliant tendrils in sport were flung. 

 When the sinking buttress and mouldering tower 

 Seem only the spectres of former power. 

 Then the Ivy clusters round the wall. 

 And for tapestry hangs in the moss-grown hall. 

 Striving in beauty and youth to dress 

 The desolate place in its loneliness." 



Romance of Nature. 



The Ivy lives to a great age, if we may judge from the 

 specimens that overrun some of the oldest edifices of 

 Europe, which are said to have been covered with it for 

 centuries, and where the main stems are seen nearly as 

 large as the trunk of a middle sized tree. 



" Whole ages have fled, and their works decayed. 

 And nations have scattered been ; 

 But the stout old Ivy shall never fade 

 From its hale and hearty green ; 

 The brave old plant in its lonely days. 

 Shall fatten upon the past ; 

 For the stateliest building man can raise. 

 Is the Ivy's food at last." 



The Ivy is not a native of America ; nor is it by any 

 means a very common plant in our gardens, though we 

 know of no apology for the apparent neglect of so beautiful 

 a climber. It is hardy south of the latitude of 42°, and we 

 have seen it thriving in great luxuriance as far north as 

 Hyde Park, on the Hudson, eighty miles above New York. 

 One of the most beautiful growths of this plant, which has 



