ean) oor 
ne “=A 
oor er 
Duy. 
Hhedera helix. NaTuRAL ORvER: Araliacee—Ginseng Family. 
SSS EOS 
PVY is an evergreen vine, native of Great Britain, and attains 
the height of forty or fifty feet, sustaining itself by tufts of 
fibers, which insert themselves into the crevices of the walls 
that support it. Hedera is its old Latin name, and helix in 
Greek and Latin signifies twisted. After having grown to its 
utmost height, its climbing character ceases, “the leaf changes 
from a palmate to a lengthened oval shape; it then forms a bush two 
or three feet high, surmounted by an abundance of branches of inter- 
esting greenish flowers” that bloom in October. They frequently attain 
a great age. One is mentioned by De Candolle as being four hundred 
and thirty-three years old, which measured six feet in circumference at 
times crowned with grape leaves as the god of wine. 
asting Hriendsip. 
HE clung to him with woman’s love, 
Like ivy to the oak, 
While on his head, with crushing force, 
Earth’s chilling tempest broke. 
[~AST he stealeth on, though he wears no wings, And his leaves he gently waves, 
And a staunch old heart has he! And he joyously twines and hugs around 
How closely he twineth, how tight he clings The rich mould of dead men’s graves, 
To his friend, the huge oak tree! Creeping where no life is seen, 
And slily he traileth along the ground, A rare old plant is the ivy green. 
—Charles Dickens, 
HAD a friend that lov’d me— 
I was his soul: he liv’d not but in me; 
We were so close within each other’s breast 
The rivets were not found that join’d us first. : 
—Dryden, 
hase I 74 1 
Age Shs —enhs. 
