ENQUIRY INTO PLANTS, III. xvm. 8-10 



present variations ; of the green one form is slenderer 

 and has more regular L and also closer leaves, the 

 other has all these characteristics in a less degree. 

 Of the variegated kind again one sort has a larger, 

 one a smaller leaf, and the variegation is variable. 

 In like manner the various forms of the white helix 

 differ in size and colour. The ' herbaceous ' kind is 

 the most vigorous and covers most space. They say 

 that the form which is supposed to turn into ivy is 

 clearly marked not only by its leaves, because they 

 are larger and broader, but also by its shoots ; for 

 these are straight from the first, and this form does 

 not bend over 2 like the other; also because the 

 shoots are slenderer and larger, while those of the 

 ivy-like 3 form are shorter and stouter. 4 The ivy 

 too, when it begins to seed, has its shoots upward- 

 growing and erect. 



All ivies have numerous close roots, which are 

 tangled together woody and stout, and do not run 

 very deep ; but this is specially true of the black 

 kind and of the roughest and wildest forms of the 

 white. Wherefore it is mischievous to plant this 

 against any tree ; for it destroys and starves any 

 tree by withdrawing the moisture. This form also 

 more than the others grows stout and becomes tree- 

 like, and in fact becomes itself an independent ivy 

 tree, though in general it likes and seeks to be 5 

 against another tree, and is, as it were, parasitic. 6 

 7 Moreover from the first it has also this natural 



* efrat conj. W. ; aid UM ; ae\ Aid. 



6 i.e. depends on another tree ; not, of course, in the 

 strict botanical sense, cf. 3. 18. 11. tira\\6Kav\ov conj. 

 Seal.; ^nav\6Ka\ov MVAld.U (with v corrected), cf. irfpi- 

 a\\6 K av\os, 7. 8. 1 ; C. P. 2. 18. 2. 



7 Plin. 16. 152. 



277 



