IVY. 



325 



The metamorphosis of Acetes's mariners 

 into dolphins, and his vessel into a forest, by 

 Bacchus, is too elegantly described by Ovid 

 not to be recalled to mind when we see this 

 climber ascending lofty trees. 



" The mighty miracle that did ensue. 

 Although it seems beyond belief, is true. 

 The vessel, fix'd and rooted in the flood, 

 Unmoved by all the beating billows, stood; 



' In vain the mariners would plough the main 

 With sails unfurl'd, and strike their oars in vain; 

 Around their oars a twining ivy cleaves, 

 And climbs the mast, and hides the cords in leaves 1 

 The sails are covered with a cheerful green, 

 And berries in the fruitful canvass seen ; 

 Amidst the waves a sudden forest rears 

 Its verdant head, and a new spring appears-." 



Some ancient writers would have us believe 

 that the ivy was first brought into Greece by 

 Bacchus, from Thebes, which is said to Imve 

 been the birth-place of the jolly god. 



Alexander the Great, who could transplant 

 whole nations with eas6, could not, it is said, 

 with all his efforts, make the ivy of Greece 

 grow in the vicinity of Babylon. It is related 

 that when he visited the mountain where 

 Bacchus was supposed to have been brought 

 up, that his army saw the ivy for the first 

 time since they had left Macedonia, to over-* 



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