THE IVY. 



71 



either situation, we shall see that its upper 

 parts will wither and die, down to the place 

 through which the knife has passed. 



Some few years ago, a tall sycamore tree 

 stood on this island, in a row with four others. 

 A remnant of its once fine bole still occupies 

 the place which the tree adorned in the days of 

 its prosperity. An unexpected appearance of 

 fungus showed that all was not right within ; 

 and, ere long, a gale of wind cut the tree nearly 

 in two, sending its head and all its branches 

 (saving one), with a colony of young jackdaws, 

 down into the lake below. The remaining 

 portion of the tree, spared by the gale, put out 

 new shoots from every part of its circumference. 

 But scarcely had these vegetated for four suc- 

 ceeding summers, when another immense fungus 

 made its appearance about two yards from the 

 truncated top, and all vegetation ceased that 

 year, down to the part where the fungus had 

 come out. Below this, the trunk was still 

 alive ; but another fungus, of equal dimensions 

 with the last, showed itself about five feet from 

 the ground, and deprived the bole of all vege- 

 tation upwards. 



At length this sickly remnant of the syca- 



F 4 



