THE IVY. 85 



tion and circulation of matter, are parts of that 

 wonderful ordination, whereby the beneficence and 

 wisdom of Providence are manifested : without the 

 agency of evaporation, not dwelling on the infini- 

 tude of effects and results, no vegetation could exist, 

 no animal life continue. 



The ivy (hedera helix), the dark-looking ivy, 

 almost covers with its thick foliage the pollards in 

 our hedgerows ; and, creeping up the sides of the 

 old barn, and chimney of the cottage, nearly hides 

 them from our sight ; affording a sheltered roost- 

 ing-place to many poor birds, and is almost their 

 only refuge in the cold season of the year. But 

 the ivy can boast of much more extensive service to 

 the poor wayfaring beings of creation, than the 

 merely affording them a covering from the winds of 

 winter. Those two extreme quarters of our 

 year, autumn and spring, yield to most animals 

 but a very slender and precarious supply of food ; 

 but the ivy in those periods saves many from want 

 and death ; and the peculiar situations, in which it 

 prefers to flourish, are essential to the preservation 

 of this supply, as in less sheltered ones it would be 

 destroyed. In the month of October the ivy blooms 

 in profusion, and spreading over the warm side of 

 some neglected wall, or the sunny bark of the broad 

 ash on the bank, its flowers become a universal 

 banquet to the insect race. The great black fly 

 (musca grossa), and its numerous tribe, with multi- 



