6 



THE YOUNG NATUKAL1ST. 



numerous, and either dispersed equally over 

 the egg, or confined to the large end. They 

 are never so much spotted or marked as those 

 of the Golden Eagle. 



HEDERA HELIX. 



(The Ivy.) 



By J. P. Soutter, Bishop Auckland. 



11 How busily thou weav'st thy emerald vest, 

 Unfading climber, round the fabrics frail, 

 Of man's uprearing ; still with ceaseless toil, 

 Striving to hide time's envious ravages, 

 And bind together the dissolving ruin ! 

 Thou lendest beauty to decay and death, 

 And throw'st a loveliness round loveless things.' 



Few, if any, plants are more widely dis- 

 tributed, or better known, than the ivy. The 

 dweller in the country is familiar with it as 

 clothing the leafless trees in winter with 

 perennial verdure, and the denizen of the 

 town knows it as mantling with its sombre 

 drapery the ancient church or ruined castle, 

 round which the busy habitations of man has 

 clustered, or he sees it planted and trained 

 to cover blank walls or unsightly corners, for 

 it is one of the most suitable plants for town 

 culture. Its bright, glossy, dark green leaves, 

 seem as if varnished on the upper surface, so 

 as to make them impervious to the dust and 

 smoke of cities, where their refreshingly cool 

 appearance forms an intensely grateful 

 change from the staring glare of bricks and 

 mortar. Seen under such artificial conditions 

 clinging closely to the wall, and producing 

 only a mass of evergreen leaves, the ivy is 

 very different in appearance to the form it 

 assumes when crowning a precipitous cliff, 

 where, after having clambered up its rugged 

 face, and thrown out pendant branches which 

 hang down in graceful festoons, swaying in 

 the breeze, and forming a leafy screen to the 

 entrance of cool grotto, or shady cave, it then 

 rises to the dignity of a wood)' shrub, bearing 

 a profusion of flowers and fruit. Under these 

 varied forms, it was formerly believed, and 

 is still upheld by some, to be two distinct 

 plants, called the creeping or climbing ivy, 



and the fruiting or berried ivy. So one can 

 understand the perplexity of the worthy 

 Christian man who challenged his pastor to 

 explain the text, from which he had preached, 

 " Every tree is known by its fruit ;" and the 

 poor man, having never seen fruit on the ivy, 

 and being no botanist, felt his faith sorely 

 tried to account for the discrepancy. The 

 ivy has, however, two distinctly different 

 modes of perpetuating its species, viz., by 

 extensively spreading and rooting stems, and 

 by producing seeds. In the barren state the 

 stems creep along the surface of the ground, 

 giving off on the underside at every joint 

 slender rootlets, which penetrate the soil and 

 take root so freely that the shortest length, if 

 transplanted, will live and thrive as an in- 

 dependent plant. Under such conditions no 

 flowers are needed and no flowers are pro- 

 duced. In this state it is extremely suitable 

 for forming borders to walks in dark corners 

 or under the shade of trees, where it will not 

 require to be trodden on, and it will prove 

 fully as effective as a foil to a gravel path, 

 and be far less trouble than a grass edging. 

 In this form it will cover walls or trees to any 

 height, if periodically trimmed and the pen- 

 dant or straggling branches cut off. It clings 

 closely to the wall, rock, or tree, by means of 

 its numerous rootlets, which under such cir- 

 cumstances do not perform the functions of 

 true roots, that is to absorb nutriment from 

 the soil, but they simply act the part of 

 mechanical holdfasts, and have been aptly 

 called root-tendrils. They adhere so firmly 

 that the young shoots will often snap and 

 break before they can be detached. If a 

 climbing sprig of ivy be examined these ad- 

 ventitious roots will be seen to be beautifully 

 covered with hairs. If there are crevices in 

 the surface they penetrate them, but if the wall 

 is smooth they assume the form of small 

 suckers, which cling most tenaciously to their 

 support. But although the ivy by closely 

 investing and surrounding other plants, such 

 as trees and thus seems to grow upon them, 

 it is not a true parasite deriving its nourish- 



