THE IVY. 457 



to attempt the defence of my favourite plant on these two important 

 points. 



The ivy which I planted many years ago has now attained a most 

 luxuriant growth, and, if I may judge by what I see before my eyes, 

 I must conclude that ivy is noways detrimental to the tree which has 

 lent it a support. Having given ivy to many trees and refused it to 

 others in the immediate vicinity, and on the same soil, in order to 

 have a good opportunity of making a fair examination, I find, upon 

 minute inspection of these several trees, that they are all of fine 

 growth, and in a most healthy state those with ivy on them, and 

 those without it, not varying from each other in appearance more 

 than ordinary groups of forest trees are wont to do. Neither is this 

 to be wondered at, when we reflect that the ivy has its roots in the 

 ground itself, and that it does not ascend in spiral progress round the 

 bole and branches of the tree. Its leading shoot is perpendicular. 

 Hence it is not in a position to compress injuriously the expansive 

 powers of the tree, proportionally stronger than its own. Thus we 

 find that the ivy gradually gives way before them ; so that, on remov- 

 ing the network (if it may be so called) which the ivy has formed on 

 the bole, we find no indentations there. 



But woodbine acts the reverse of this. Its process is spiral, and 

 it becomes, as it were, an immovable hoop on the plant which it has 

 embraced. As the woodbine, by its circumambient position, cannot 

 give way, the plant must consequently protrude wherever it is not 

 compressed, till at last the woodbine becomes nearly buried in it. 

 Thus we account for the fantastic form of walking-sticks, which are 

 often to be seen at the shop-doors of curious venders. The spiral 

 hollows in these sticks are always formed by the woodbine, never by 

 the ivy. 



Having the workings of the ivy, and those of the woodbine, daily 

 before my eyes, I venture, without wishing to impugn the opinion of 

 others, to assert that the latter is injurious, and the former not in- 

 jurious, to the plant which it has embraced and this by position 

 alone , for, both having their own roots in the ground, their nutri- 

 ment is amply supplied from that quarter. 



Ivy, when planted on the eastern part of a tree which grows in a 

 high and very exposed situation, can scarcely ever reach the opposite 



