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cultivated in gardens ; even Pliny mentions it ; indeed it is one of the oldest, if 

 not the oldest, variegated garden plant of which we have any record. The fruit of 

 H. Helix in Northern Europe is generally black ; in Germany it occurs occasionally 

 with white : and in European Turkey, Greece, and Italy, with yellow berries. The 

 black-fruited kind has always been considered as the true H. Helix, and the white 

 as a variety of it, which indeed it is ; but the yellow has been made, I think 

 unjustly, into a distinct species, and named H. poetarum by Bertoloni, and some- 

 time previously H. chrysocarpa by Walsh. It is the latter plant which played so 

 important a part in ancient Greece and Rome, its leaves supplying the materials 

 for the wreaths with which poets were crowned, and at the festivals in honour of 

 Dionysos, all casks, vessels, amphoras, &c., were decorated ; it was customary 

 even to lie and sit upon ivy branches on those occasions. It is believed tradition- 

 ally that the yellow-fruited ivy came from India with the worship of Bacchus ; and 

 the fact that the Nepal ivy described by Wallich has yellow fruit is regarded as a 

 proof of the correctness of this tradition. But a close examination of the Euro- 

 pean yellow-fruited plant shows that it is specifically identical with H. Helix, and 

 specifically different from the Nepal and all other Asiatic specimens. If the worship 

 of Dionysos gradually crept from India to Greece and Rome, and a yellow-fruited 

 ivy was deemed essential to its proper performance, there was no need of carrying 

 the Asiatic plant into Europe, as an indigenous variety (chrysocarpa = poetarum) 

 occurred at the very threshold ; whilst the Asiatic ivy, as we shall presently see, 

 is spread from the central highlands to the most western confines of Asia to 

 ancient Colchis. The African ivy is Hedera canariensis, Willd. It is found in the 

 Canary Islands, Madeira, and the north of Africa, and may at once be known by 

 its uppermost leaves being cordate, its umbels arranged in panicles, rarely and only 

 in young plants in simple racemes, and its pedicels and calyx being covered with 

 white stellate hairs, the hairs having from thirteen to fifteen rays. To this must 

 probably be referred what is called in gardens Scotch or Irish ivy. It is a much 

 quicker growing plant than H. Helix, and on that account more frequently planted 

 in gardens, but is much more susceptible to cold, and in Germany often killed by 

 frost. At some time or other this species is said to have been introduced into 

 Ireland, and has hence received the name of H. Hibernica in our gardens ; but I 

 have not been able to learn anything authentic about this introduction, or whether 

 it has been introduced at all. At present, Dr. Moore, of Glasnevin, informs me it 

 is found to all intents and purposes wild in various parts of Ireland, growing 

 together with H. Helix, and far away from cultivation. Mackay also mentions it as 

 having been found in Ireland. I have not been able to examine any specimens of 



