248 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



if suffered to ramble along the ground, but needs the support 

 of a tree, a frame, or a wall, to which it attaches itself firmly, 

 and grows with vigorous shoots. Bare walls or fences may 

 thus be clothed with verdure and beauty equal to the living 

 hedge, in a very short period of time, by planting young Ivy 

 roots at the base. 



The most desirable varieties of the common Ivy are, the 

 Irish Ivy, with much larger foliage than the common sort, 

 and more rapid in its growth; the Silver-striped, and the Gold- 

 striped leaved Ivy, both of which, though less vigorous, are 

 much admired for the singular colour of their leaves. The 

 common English Ivy is more hardy than the others in our 

 climate. 



Although, as we have said, the Ivy is not a native of this 

 country, yet we have an indigenous vine, which, at least in 

 summer, is not inferior to it. We refer to the Virginia Creep- 

 er, {Amvelopsis hederacea,) which is often called the Amer- 

 ican Ivy. The leaves are as large as the hand, deeply di- 

 vided into five lobes, and the blossoms are succeeded by 

 handsome, deep blue berries. The Virginia Creeper is a 

 most luxuriant grower, and we have seen it climbing to the 

 extremities of trees 70 or 80 feet in height. Like the Ivy, 

 it attaches itself to whatever it can lay hold of, by the little 

 rootlets which spring out of the branches ; and its foliage, 

 when it clothes thickly a high wall, or folds itself in cluster- 

 ing wreaths around the trunk and branches of an open tree, 

 is extremely handsome and showy. Although the leaves are 

 not evergreen like those of the Ivy, yet in autumn they far 

 surpass those of that plant in the rich and gorgeous colour- 

 ing which they then assume. Numberless trees may be seen 

 in the country by the road-side, and in the woods, thus deck- 

 ed in autumn in the borrowed glories of the Virginia Creeper; 



