330 HEDERA. [CLASS V. ORDER I. 



Portugal gooseberries are called Uva de Nord, (grapes of the 

 North) ; in Italy Uva spinosa, (spiny grapes) ; and iu French 

 groseilles. 



GENUS XL. HE'DERA. LINN. Ivy. 

 Nat. Ord. ARALIA'CE.E. Juss. 



GEN. CHAR. Calyx of five teeth. Petals broadest at the base. Style 

 simple, or divided. Fruit a succulent berry, crowned by the 

 calyx, of from three to five cells, and as many seeds. Name said 

 to be from hcereo, to stick, because it attaches itself to trees 

 and old walls. 



1. H. He'lix, Linn. (Fig. 399.) common Ivy. Stem climbing ; 

 flowers in erect umbels ; leaves coriaceous, smooth and shining, ovate 

 or heart-shaped, or of from three to five angular lobes. 



English Botany, t. 1267. English Flora, vol. 5. p. 335. Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 123. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 133. 



Stem very long and creeping, and attaching itself to objects that are 

 near it, as walls or trees, by means of numerous root-like pro- 

 cesses, branched, and very leafy. Leaves evergreen, of dark hue, 

 smooth and shining, paler beneath, with a mid-rib and long lateral 

 veins, alternate on footstalks of variable shapes, sometimes the whole 

 are ovate-lanceolate, with a more or less waved border, in others the 

 upper leaves are only of this shape, while the lower are of three or five 

 angular lobes, and in other instances the whole are of this shape. In- 

 florescence a simple umbel, of numerous flowers, terminating the 

 branches either with one or a number of umbels, disposed in a 

 corymbose manner. Flowers small, green, on stalks, clothed with close 

 minute star-like down, surrounded at the base with several small ovnte- 

 lanceolate bracteas, limb of the calyx of five minute teeth. Petals 

 green, reflexed, oblong from a broad base, pointed, with a mid-rib. 

 Stamens alternating with the petals. Filaments as long as the petals. 

 Anthers of two longtitudinal cells, cloven at the base. Style simple 

 and furrowed, or several. Stigma -simple, obtuse. Fruit a smooth 

 globular berry, black, somewhat glaucous, of from three to five cells, 

 surrounded by a mealy substance. Seeds single in each cell, oblong. 



Habitat. Hedges, woods, rocks, and ruined buildings ; frequent. 



Shrub ; flowering in October. 



Ivy by the ancients was much esteemed. Of it they wove the 

 fillets of their Bacchanalian merry makings, and wreathed into a crown 

 they placed it on the brows, to mark the poet's fame ; not only, how- 



