I 



^ 



^ which are colourless and inodorous, but possess the intensely bitter taste of the 

 ivy. It is insoluble in water and ether, but soluble in alcohol. In contact with 

 sulphuric acid it strikes a fine purple colour." l 



In seasons of drought and scarcity of provender the plant has proved of great 

 value as cattle food ; for horses, cattle, deer, and sheep are partial to it ; the latter 

 especially so. This fact did not escape the notice of Shakspere, for when he 

 makes the shepherd in " Winter's Tale" complain of the hunters who have 

 broken in upon his flock, it is in these terms : 



" They have scared away two of my best sheep, which, I fear, the wolf will sooner find than 

 the master. If anywhere I have them, 'tis by the sea-side, browsing of ivy." 2 



IV 



I Idle as the syrphus is, and incapable of storing honey, it is one of the 



gardener's best friends ; for its larva subsists on aphides, and especially such as 

 infest currant and gooseberry trees. Amongst the many other insects that 

 frequent the ivy-flowers, a few grand butterflies occur occasionally, such as the 

 Red Admiral, the Painted Lady, the Camberwell Beauty, and the Pearl -bordered 

 Fritillary. The berries which follow afford sustenance to thrushes, blackbirds, 

 fieldfares, wood-pigeons, and other birds, who, at the season when the ivy offers 



y> 

 % 



\l 

 (E 



1 Arts and Sciences division, article Hederic Acid. 



2 Act III. B. 3. 



3 " Endymion," Book I. 



(L 



In an indirect manner, the ivy contributes considerably to our comfort ; for 

 its flowers are rich in honey, and the honey-bees haunt them in all the sunny 

 hours of autumn from the time they begin to expand. A bee-like fly, the Syrphus 

 ribesi, may usually be found in plenty on the flowers of the ivy, and is easily |JK 

 distinguished from the honey-bee by the wide spread of its wings and its com- 

 paratively idle movements so unlike the busy confectioner that sings over his 

 work, and that Keats so happily characterised in one of his most charming >JL/ 

 passages A 



" And as a willow keeps ^ I 



A patient watch ovsr the stream that creeps 



Windingly by it, so the quiet maid 



Held her in peace : so that a whispering blade 



Of grass, a wilful gnat, a bee bustling 



Down in the bluebells, or a wren light rustling 



Among sere leaves and twigs, might all be heard." 3 



