74 



THE IVY. 



But woodbine acts the reverse of this. Its 

 process is spiral, and it becomes, as it were, an 

 immovable hoop on the plant which it has em- 

 braced. As the woodbine, by its circumambient 

 position cannot give way, the plant must conse- 

 quently protrude wherever it is not compressed, 

 till at last the woodbine becomes nearly buried 

 in it. Thus we account for the fantastic form 

 of walking-sticks, which are often to be seen at 

 the shop doors of curious venders. The spiral 

 hollows in these sticks are always formed by 

 the woodbine, never by the ivy. 



Having the workings of the ivy, and those 

 of the woodbine, daily before my eyes, I venture, 

 without washing to impugn the opinion of others, 

 to assert, that the latter is injurious, and the 

 former not injurious to the plant which it has 

 embraced ; and this, by position alone ; for, 

 both having their own roots in the ground, 

 their nutriment is amply supplied from that 

 quarter. 



Ivy, when planted on the eastern part of a 

 tree which grows in a high and very exposed 

 situation, can scarcely ever reach the opposite 

 portion of it, on account of the resistance which 

 it meets from the western blast. But it will 



