288 



THE IVY. 



clear of Ivy, the best plan is, not to cut through 

 the stems of the intruder, as generally prac- 

 tised, but to detach them as carefully as pos- 

 sible from the trees, and to let them fall back. 

 They will thus lie on the ground, and continue to 

 grow in the same direction in which they were 

 laid. Otherwise, new shoots will spring up from 

 the roots which have been deprived of their 

 leading stems, and it will soon be necessary to 

 repeat the process. When Ivy grows over build- 

 ings its effects depend on the nature of the struc- 

 ture : if the masonry be solid no mischief can 

 ensue, as the climbing shoots will bind and 

 strengthen, without attempting to penetrate : but 

 if the structure be loose and crumbling, or if 

 earth be lodged here and there, it is very likely 

 that roots will be formed wherever they find 

 a convenient soil, and, as they increase in size, 

 will penetrate into the mass, and dislodge the 

 constituent parts. A striking example of the 

 pernicious efi'ects of Ivy on a structure of this 

 kind occurred some years since in a remote county. 

 At a period of great agricultural distress, a gentle- 

 man, in order to furnish the poor with employ- 

 ment, resolved to enclose his park, which was 

 seven miles in circumference, with a stone wall. 

 The mason who undertook the contract hap- 

 pened to be an unprincipled man, and instead of 

 fulfilling his engagement of building a solid wall 

 of stone, erected it with a double facing of the 

 material named, and filled the interstice with earth 

 and rubbish. When completed, it appeared to be 

 an honest stone wall, but in a few years Ivy 

 climbed to the top in many places, sent down its 

 roots into the earth, and these, as they enlarged, 



