IVY BUSH. 



HEDERA HELIX. 



rAPRIFOLIE.E. PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA 



French, lierre ; Italian, ellera. 



THE common Ivy is a well known plant, unjustly 

 considered as parasitical, the stem of which will support 

 itself by an abundance of fibres, or holdfasts against 

 trees or walls ; or, if no support be near, will creep along 

 the ground, the stalks throwing out roots as they run ; 

 so that it is very difficult to eradicate it. While they 

 trail upon the ground, or cling to any support, the stalks 

 are slender and flexible, but when they have reached the 

 top of that by which they rise, they become strong, and 

 form large bushy heads : thus do they clothe and crown 

 many a leafless stump with a beautiful and luxuriant 

 verdure. The leaves of these bushy heads are larger, 

 more of an oval shape than the lower leaves, and are not, 

 like them, divided into lobes ; this difference made some 

 old botanists mistake them for different species. While 

 the stalks creep, the Ivy never produces any blossom, 

 and in this state it is called Barren or Creeping Ivy ; 

 but when they surmount the support by which they 

 have grown, they produce flowers at the end of every 

 shoot ; these are of a yellowish or greenish white, growing 

 in umbels or clusters, and are succeeded by berries, 

 which become black before they are ripe. At first the 



