IVY 



3090 



IXION 



the bur sixty to ninety nuts, the size of wal- 

 nuts, are incased until they ripen, when the 

 lower part of the bur splits open, letting the 



IVORY PALM 



negritos, as they are often called, fall to the 

 ground. The kernel of the nut, when ripe, is 

 soft, juicy and edible, but after being dried 

 it becomes a very hard, white composition 

 which looks so much like ivory that it is called 

 vegetable ivory. 



IVY 



(a) English ivy, valued for window decoration ; 

 (6) Boston ivy. 



The trees, which live to be seventy-five to 

 100 years old, begin bearing nuts in their sixth 

 year. As the texture of vegetable ivory is such 



that it readily absorbs dyes and also takes on a 

 high permanent polish, the nuts are shipped in 

 great quantities for making buttons. Over 

 20,000 tons of. them, wortlT $1,700,000, are 

 shipped from Ecuador alone each year. See 

 BUTTON, for illustration. 



IVY, i' vi, a hardy, climbing plant, with 

 shining and waxlike leaves that vary in form 

 from three to five lobes. Its perpetual green- 

 ness gives it a beautiful appearance; it lives 

 many years, and is known and valued over the 

 greater part of the world. The common, or 

 English, ivy has inconspicuous flowers and is 

 one of the favorite coverings for walls, and 

 presents the characteristics of a clinging vine. 

 Its creepers hold firmly even to quite smooth 

 walls, and it thrives in all locations where no 

 other plant exposed to the wind could grow. 

 In the fall of the year its leaves change to 

 crimson and scarlet when touched by the frost. 



Ground Ivy. The ground ivy bears but little 

 resemblance to the common ivy. It is a creep- 

 ing plant, with a hairy stem, usually tinged 

 with pink. It blooms all summer and is com- 

 mon in waste places and along roadsides. The 

 flowers of this variety of ivy grow in circles 

 close to the stem, and each flower is a purple 

 or blue tube; inside the corolla-tube are four 

 small, yellow-headed stamens. Dickens said 

 of the ivy in his Pickwick Papers: 



Oh, a dainty plant is the ivy green, 

 That creepeth o'er ruins old ! 



Poison Ivy, a three-leaved American shrub 

 which, as its name suggests, is poisonous to 

 the touch, affecting some persons more severely 

 than others. Growing in all locations, some- 

 times near the Virginia creeper, which has fi\ 

 leaves, it is often 

 confused with the 

 latter. An unfail- 

 ing way to iden- 

 tify the two is 

 to remember that 

 the letter V stands 

 for the number 

 five and is also 

 the first letter in 

 the word Virginia. 

 The poison ivy's 

 leaves are glossy, 

 'dark green ; its 



small flowers, greenish; its berries, white 

 waxy. The latter furnish food for the bi 

 until late in winter. In the fall the 

 are beautifully colored and very attractive, 

 beware of gathering them ! 



