ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, III. xvin. 6-8 



kind some call korymbias, but the Athenians call it the 

 1 Acharnian ' ivy. Another kind is smaller and loose 

 in growth like the black ivy. 1 There are also vari- 

 ations in the black kind, but they are not so well 

 marked. 



2 The helix presents the greatest differences 3 ; the 

 principal difference is in the leaves/ which are small 

 sngular and of more graceful proportions, while 

 those of the ivy proper are rounder and simple ; 

 there is also difference in the length of the twigs, 

 and further in the fact that this tree is barren. For/ 

 as to the view that the helix by natural development 

 turns into the ivy, 6 some insist 7 that this is not so, 

 the only true ivy according to these being that which 

 was ivy from the first 8 ; (whereas if, as some say, the 

 helix invariably 9 turns into ivy, the difference would 

 be merely one of age and condition, and not of kind, 

 like the difference between the cultivated and the 

 wild pear). However the leaf even of the full- 

 grown helix is very different from that of the ivy, 

 and it happens but rarely and in a few specimens 

 that in this plant a change in the leaf occurs as it 

 grows older, as it does in the abele and the castor-oil 

 plant. 10 n There are several forms of the helix, of 

 which the three most conspicuous and important are 

 the green ' herbaceous ' kind (which is the common- 

 est), the white, and the variegated, which some call 

 the 'Thracian' helix. Each of these appears to 



8 i.e. and helix being a distinct plant which is always 

 barren. 



9 iraaa conj. Sch.; iras Aid. 



10 Sc. as well as in ivy; cf. 1. 10. 1, where this change is 

 said to be characteristic of these three trees. (The rendering 

 attempted of this obscure section is mainly from W.'s note.) 



11 Plin. 16. 148 folL 



275 



