64 THE IVY. 



of that wonderful ordination, whereby the beneficence 

 and wisdom of Providence are manifested : without the 

 agency of evaporation, not dwelling on the infinitude 

 of effects and results, no vegetation could exist, no ani- 

 mal life continue. 



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

 covers with its thick foliage the pollards in our hedge- 

 rows ; and, creeping up the sides of the old barn, and 

 chimney of the cottage, nearly hides them from our 

 sight ; affording a sheltered roosting-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 ex- 

 tensive 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 

 ^jry 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 

 bjack fly (musca grossa), and its numerous tribe, with 

 multitudes of small winged creatures, resort to them ; 

 and there we see those beautiful animals, the latest birth 

 of the year, the admiral (vanessa atalanta) and peacock 

 (vanessa Id) butterflies, hanging with expanded wings 

 like open flowers themselves, enjoying the sunny gleam, 

 and feeding on the sweet liquor that distils from the 

 nectary of this plant. As this honey is produced in 

 succession by the early or later expansion of the bud, 

 it yields a constant supply of food, till the frosts of No- 

 vember destroy the insects, or drive them to their win- 

 ter retreats. Spring arrives ; and in the bitter months 

 of March, April, and even May, at times, when the 

 wild products of the field are nearly consumed, the ivy 

 ripens its berries, and then almost entirely constitutes 

 the food of the missel thrush, wood-pigeon, and some 



See note H, appendix. 



