56 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



VIORN> 



Climbing, sub-shrubby, flowering successionally on summer 

 shoots from July to September. 



Cocdnea: Scarlet. 



Crispa: Pinkish-white, sweet-scented. 



CHAPTER X 

 IVIES 



THESE exceedingly useful plants have already been praised 

 in this volume. Forty years ago, before gardening books 

 were anything like so plentiful as now, they formed the sub- 

 ject of a charming monograph by Shirley Hibberd. If there 

 is one leaf thoroughly well known to every British man, 

 woman, and child, it must be the leaf of the Ivy, for it thrives 

 in the most unpromising corners of the smokiest towns, and 

 there are also abundant opportunities for seeing it growing 

 wild in the country. It is one of the most universally 

 popular of all plants, a circumstance which is no doubt 

 somewhat assisted by the meaning attached to Ivy in the 

 so-called language of flowers : it stands for friendship, and 

 has the mottoes, " I cling to thee," and " I die where I am 

 attached." Ivy is the badge of the Clan Gordon. 



Seeing that Ivy was associated with both Christian and 

 Pagan festivals, it is not remarkable that it should have 

 been adopted as a tavern sign, being, no doubt, derived 

 from the very ancient sign of " The Bush," which was intro- 

 duced to this country by the Romans, and which is the 

 explanation of the proverb, " Good wine needs no bush." 



