34 Gilpin's forest sceneey. 



All tlaese plants are parasitical, as the botanist 

 expressively calls tliem. The tribes of mosses, 

 lichens, and liver-worts make no pretence to 

 independence. They are absolute retainers. Not 

 one of them gets his own livelihood, nor takes 

 the least step towards it. The Ivy indeed is less 

 dependent. He has a root of his own, and draws 

 nourishment from the ground : biit his character 

 is misrepresented, if his little feelers have not 

 other purposes than merely that of showing an 

 attachment to his potent neighbour. Shakespeare 

 roundly asserts he makes a property of him : — 



' Hg was 

 Tlie Ivy, ■wliicli had hid my princely trunk, 

 And suck'd my verdure out.' 



Gilpin's suggestion and Shakespeare's assumption are 

 both, we think, correct, notwithstanding the opinion of 

 Sir Dick Lauder, the first Editor of the ' Forest Scenery,' 

 and of several modern botanists. We believe that the 

 ' littlo feelers ' of the Ivy are veritable roots, and that, as 

 such, they draw nourishment from the crevices — whether 

 the crannies of rooks or walls, or the fissures in tree 

 trunks — into which they insinuate themselves. In this 

 o pinion we are supp orted_by_authorities of no less_ weight 

 than Sir Joseph Hooker and Mr. Shirley Hibberd. The 



