838 THE IVY. 



no longer a climbing stem with lobdd leaves, but sends 

 out erect branches of tufted foliage, and becomes a round- 

 headed bush. Neither roots nor tendrils are formed on 

 the stems ; and the dark, glossy leaves preserve an 

 even edge, unbroken by any indentation, but still vary 

 considerably in "width. The height at which this altera- 

 tion takes place varies from a few feet to a hundred, for it 

 seems to require not so much an elevated tract of atmo- 

 sphere as free access to light. Its upward growth now 

 rarely exceeds a few feet, but it produces abundance of 

 leaves and flowers. The latter are formed in terminal 

 heads ; each flower is furnished with a separate stalk, and 

 comprises five green petals, five stamens, and one pistil. 



The stems of very old Ivy are sometimes thickly 

 invested with long grey fibres : these may perhaps be a 

 fruitless effort of the tree, which has exhausted the soil in 

 the neighbourhood of its roots, to send out rootlets into 

 the surrounding air, as the Vine is seen to do when grow- 

 ing under unfavourable circumstances. This fact has not 

 escaped the notice of the poet : 



" And monstrous Ivy stems 

 Claspt the gray walls with hairy-fibred arms, 

 And suckt the joining of the stones, and looked 

 A knot, beneath, of snakes aloft, a grove." TENNYSON. 



When the month of October happens to be enlivened by 

 a few bright days, an Ivy-bush in full bloom suggests the 

 idea of anything but gloom. All the trees of the forest are 

 plainly intimating that their glory is in the wane ; a few 

 pale flowers are scattered here and there, evidently the 

 produte of exhausted plants the whole insect world, 

 with the exception of drony evening beetles, has either 

 perished or retired to secure winter quarters, when, after 

 gome days of storm and cloud, there comes a flash of calm, 

 clear sunshine ; then, hasten to the nearest Ivy-bush, and 

 be convinced that summer has not taken its departure 

 without giving one day as an earnest that it will come again. 

 Every twig of Ivy terminates in a cluster of fresh, timely 



