ILLUSTRATIONS. 351 



and on these, which bear the flowers, the leaves are ovate. 

 Sometimes tlie Ivy may be seen climbing flat against the sur- 

 face of a wall till it reaches the top, and then developing a large 

 branched head, as if planted on the wall top. 



" Emong the rest, tlie clamb'ring yvie grew, 

 Knitting his wanton arms with grasping hold, 

 Lest that the poplar happely should rew 

 Her brother's strokes, whose boughs she doth enfold 

 With her lythe twigs, till they the top survew, 

 And paint with pallid green her buds of gold." 



Sj)enser. 



The flowering branches bear a short raceme or panicle of 

 several nearly globular umbels of yellowish-green flowers. 

 These consist of a very slight entire calyx-border about half 

 way up the ovary, five short broad petals, five erect stamens, 

 and the styles cohering into a single mass. The cells of the 

 ovary are from five to ten in number, and the berry, which is 

 smooth and black, contains from two to five seeds. The Ivy 

 is made the emblem of friendship, from the closeness of its 

 adherence to the tree on which it has once fixed itself. It has 

 also been called '^ the critic^s ivy." The plant was dedicated 

 by the ancients to Bacchus, whose statues were often found 

 crowned wdth a wreath of its leaves. The priests of the Greeks, 

 it is said, presented a wreath of Ivy to newly- married persons, 

 as a symbol of the closeness of the tie which ought to bind 

 them together. 



The Devil's-bit,"^ an example of the Dipsacaceous family, 

 belongs to the same series of epigynous Monopetals as the 

 family of Composites. It is found abundantly in meadows 

 and pastures, and in heathy places, and is a perennial herb, 

 with a short thick root-stock, ending abruptly as if it had been 



* Scahiosa succisa — Plate 23 A. 



