IVY 59 



The flowers are polygamous, and the anthers are mature first, 

 though some plants are homogamous, the stigma and anthers ripening 

 together. The petals are fugacious or drop, and the flower is yellowish- 

 green. Beetles visit it as well as flies and wasps. The stamens equal 

 the corolla, and are turned back. The anthers are divided into two 

 nearly halfway below, and incumbent or lying down. The style is 

 short, the stigma simple, terminal. There is abundant honey. The 

 flowers are sterile to their own pollen. 



The fruit is edible, and the seeds are dispersed by animals. It 

 remains dormant during the winter, not ripening till the spring. 



Ivy is usually a woodland climber, and is a humus-lover, requiring 

 humus soil. 



Ivy is a food plant for the beetles O china hedercz, Grammoptera 

 ruficornis, Anobium striatum, Lepturus testae ens ^ Pogonochcerus den- 

 tatus, the Lepidoptera Holly Blue (Polyommatus argiolus), Old Lady 

 (Mania maura], Gothic (N&nia typica], Swallow-tailed Moth (Urop- 

 teryx sambucata), Tortrix forsteriana, the Homoptera Thamnotettix 

 splendidula, Zygina tilice, the Heteroptera Schirus bicolor, Derephysia 

 foliaceus, Ploiaria vagabunda. 



Hedera, Pliny, is Latin for Ivy, and Helix, Pliny, was another 

 Latin name for it. 



Ivy is called Benewith-tree, Bentwood, Bindwood, Eevy, Ground 

 Ivy, Hyven, Ivin, Ivory, Ivy, Barren, Black, Creeping, Small Ivy, 

 Wood-bind. It was called Bindwood possibly because of the hold it 

 takes. The small-leaved form growing on banks, &c., does not flower, 

 hence the name Barren Ivy. 



This plant was said to reveal witches. "To pipe in an ivy leaf" 

 is to engage in a futile pursuit. " An owl in an ivy bush " denotes 

 union of wisdom with conviviality. An ivy bush was a common tavern 

 sign, giving rise to the saying, "Good wine needs no bush". It was 

 sacred to Bacchus. In language it is the emblem of confiding love 

 and fidelity. 



According to Cornish tradition the beautiful Iseult, unable to 

 endure the loss of the brave Tristan, died of a broken heart, and was 

 buried in the same church, but by order of the king the two graves 

 were placed at a distance from each other. Soon, however, there burst 

 forth from the tomb of Tristan a branch of ivy and another from the 

 grave of Iseult, these shoots gradually growing upwards, until at last 

 the lovers, represented by the clinging ivy, were again united beneath 

 the vaulted roof of heaven. 



It is largely used in Christmas decorations. It is useful for orna- 



