224 The Ivy. 



is conveyed into its branches by the same laws which regulate 

 the vital functions of other members of the vegetable kingdom. 

 The leaves have but little smell, though a strong nauseous taste • 

 they are much used in Germany, Haller informs us, as a remedy 

 for consumption in children. In England they are used more 

 as applied to running sores to keep issues open. They had some 

 reputation in the cholera, but are entirely unused at the present 

 day. 



This has often been confounded with the Poison Ivy — Rhus 

 Radicans, and the general aversion with which the latter has been 

 regarded fully extended to the former. The character of the 

 Poison Ivy is so well known that it is universally distinguished by 

 some name applicable to its deleterious properties, as Poison 

 Vine, Poison Creeper, and Poison Ivy. It is commonly 

 found in a dry soil, on the borders of fields and woods, and in its 

 mode of growth very like the common creeper; and like other 

 handsome ornamental twiners, would be, like its European name- 

 sake, carefully cultivated and cherished, were it as harmless. It 

 rises and supports itself by means of strong fibres, which come 

 out from the sides, and adhere to everything with which they come 

 in contact. These fibres, though very slender, and apparently 

 weak, are extremely strong ; their size enables them to penetrate 

 minute crevices, to which in consequence they must ever after- 

 wards cling, and like Milo and the oak, often prove their ruin, 

 in not allowing them to get out of the way. Dr. Bigelow says 

 that he has repeatedly seen large stems of the Rhus Radicans 

 completely buried in the trunks of old trees, the bark having 

 grown over and enveloped them. The stem is commonly not 

 more than an inch in diameter ; but in old plants it obtains several 

 times the size ; compressed of course in all cases on the side 

 to which it adheres for support. Linnams placed this genus in 

 the class Pentandria, order Trigynia ; most of the species thus 

 included are Dioecious. The leaves are in threes and supported 

 on long, partly flattened footstalks ; they are of an ovate shape, 

 sharp, smooth and glossy on both sides, somewhat hairy on the 

 prominent veins beneath ; margin sometimes whole and some- 

 times toothed. The flowers, which come out in June, are small 

 and greenish white, growing in clusters on the seeds of the new 

 shoots, and ^springing out mostly from the angle formed by the 

 leaf and stem. The berries are somewhat round in shape, and, 



