1 1 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



birch clough you are passing on your way home, 

 and take those beautiful and fragile Bvumata. 

 which are hanging about the tips of the birch 

 branches, and look closely for the females, 

 which being semi-apterous are often over- 

 looked by careless workers ; they are most 

 commonly found about trunks of trees, or on 

 low plants, near the birches. 



Having exhausted this amusing and success- 

 ful plan of obtaining the autumn moths within 

 your collecting track, then turn to the street 

 lamps on your way home, and doubtless you 

 will be amply repaid by finding the way very 

 much shortened as your boxes become filled 

 and in the morning when you look over your 

 night's captures, I have little doubt you will 

 say with me, work wins. 



HEDERA HELIX. 



(The Ivy.) 



By J. P. Soutter, Bishop Auckland. 



Concluded from Page 6. 



When the ivy reaches the top of a tree, or 

 the summit of a wall, finding it cannot further 

 extend its area it rises in the air, assumes a 

 compact bushlike habit, the leaves lose their 

 familiar lobed, or angled shape, becoming 

 entire and lanceolate in outline. It now pro- 

 duces a profusion of greenish flowers, fol- 

 lowed by abundance of fruit, so that the 

 seeds falling on the ground, or transported 

 by birds, may thereby ensure a succession of 

 plants. The ivy is the latest flowering of all 

 our British plants, blooming through Octo- 

 ber and November, and although the flowers 

 are not showy in lividually, and only faintly 

 perfumed, they are so numerous, and so 

 prolific of honey, a5 to be very attractive to 

 insects. On a bright sunny October day 

 they fairly swarm with wasps, &c, and fur- 

 nish a supply of insect food when such is 

 scarce. At night they are much frequented by 

 honey sucking Lepidoptera, and Ivy flowers 

 in the Autumn take the place of Willow 

 blossom in Spring, and collectors who visit 



them seldom fail to reap a rich harvest. 

 The flowers are arranged in the 

 peculiar manner called an umbel, where we 

 have a number of flower stalks radiating 

 from a common centre, like the spokes of a 

 wheel, or the ribs of an umbrella. The unex- 

 panded flower buds look like clusters of 

 | green berries. The calyx is reduced to five 

 minute, brown, triangular scales. The petals 

 j of the corolla of a yellowish green color, at 

 j first slightly cohere by their edges, but when 

 \ fully expanded they are quite distinct, and 

 I spreading, becoming ultimately reflexed. The 

 ; stamens are very prominent, equal in number, 

 and alternate with the petals, and opposite 

 ; the calyx lobes, they mature before the 

 j stigmas, the style is short and solitary, 

 j crowning the top of the ovary. The parts of 

 the flower are often found in sixes, although 

 five is the normal number. The flowers of 

 the ivy are polygamous, i.e., three different 

 kinds may be found, although not all on the 

 same bush. Certain plants produce (sta- 

 ! minate) flowers, with perfect stamens contain- 

 ing abundance of pollen, but with abortive 

 stigmas, hence, these flowers are sterile, or 

 barren, and produce no seeds. Other (pistil- 

 late) flowers occur with abortive stamens, 

 producing no potent pollen, but with fully 

 developed stigmas, these are very fertile, and 

 produce abundance of seeds, although they 

 must be fertilised with, pollen brought from 

 other flowers. Other bushes may bear 

 (hermaphrodite) flowers, having perfect sta- 

 mens and stigmas, thus having the power of 

 producing seeds, in the ordinary way, within 

 themselves. At present the ivy seems in a tran- 

 sition state, tending towards a separation of the 

 sexes in different individuals, as may be seen 

 in the willows, and man)- other plants, thus 

 ensuring cross-fertilisation, which seems 

 necessar}' for a robust progeny, this is a very 

 interesting phase of evolution, which we have 

 not space to elaborate in this connection. 



The berries of the Ivy ripen in January and 

 February, forming a very important and 

 welcome addition to the food of birds when 



