THE IVY. 



I 



The tree-like branches that happen to lean against it will put forth climbing shoots 

 with lobed leaves, and these will climb to the summit, and then, arrested in their 

 upward career through lack of support, will assume the arborescent form in pre- 

 cisely the same manner as those on the original summit out of which they sprang. 

 By striking cuttings of -the climbing stems, the intermediate stems, and the arbo- 

 rescent stems, we may secure three distinct forms of ivy from one plant, and these 

 forms will keep their characters if some amount of skill is bestowed in cultivating 

 them. 



It is not alone in the difference of leafage that the vertical and the horizontal 

 growths differ. The first never produces fruit, the second always does. 1 Hence 

 we may properly distinguish them as climbing forms and fruiting forms of the 

 y same plant. Instead of lengthening out indefinitely, the fruiting form produces 

 shoots of a few inches or a foot or so in length, each shoot terminating in a cluster 

 or umbel of flower buds, which expand into pretty green flowers in September and 

 October, and soon after are succeeded by small spherical fruit, which ripens during 

 the winter, and acquires a black or dark brown colour. In the South of Europe a 

 variety which produces berries of a dull orange hue, the " golden, "or " yellow- 

 berried " ivy, is common, and as its leafage is of a lighter green than our black- 

 berried ivy, it contributes in a remarkable degree to the gorgeous colouring of 

 many noble scenes that have roused the emulation of poets and painters to ensure 

 for them the fame they deserve. In that interesting work, " The Flora of the 

 Colosseum of Rome," by Dr. Deakin, the ivy is of course one of the 420 plants 

 found by the botanist growing on the ruins of that magnificent memento of Rome's 

 former pride. The learned author of that work says the ivy covers with pendulous 

 clusters of golden-coloured berries the remains of a large tomb in a vineyard on 

 the right hand of the Appian road, going towards Cecilia Metella's tomb, which is 

 also clothed in some parts with ivy, and is spoken of in " Childe Harold" as the 

 " stern round tower of other days," in the stanza quoted in the last chapter. 



Two interesting questions now present themselves for our consideration. To 

 begin with the holding-claws what are they? Sir J. E. Smith says the stem, 

 when climbing, is " flattened, and attached by dense tufted fibres, which serve for 

 support, not nourishment." 2 Dr. Deakin says : " The root-like processes . . . 

 are variously formed, but all equally perfect in accomplishing the purpose for which 



1 Some varieties are believed to be sterile, and this should qualify the expression, 

 however, a question if the belief is well founded; in the author's opinion it is not. 



2 " English Flora," 1824, I. p. 335. 



It is, 





