THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



15 



severe seasons pinch with threatened famine 

 the little feathered folks. The Blackcap 

 Warbler, one of our sweetest songsters, is 

 said to be particularly fond of them, and 

 wherever Ivy abounds there it will be found. ! 

 The Ivy is an evergreen plant, so called : 

 because it does not throw off the whole of its 

 leaves annually like our ordinary forest ! 

 trees, but the leaves remain persistent for ■ 

 several years, and although there is a periodic j 

 shedding of the leaves, it is so gradual that 

 the plant seems always clothed with verdure, j 

 As in ordinary plants growth goes on in the 

 warmth of spring and summer, when the 

 young shoots and leaves are formed, at this 

 period a supply of nourishment is stored up 

 in the thick leathery leaves, which is again I 

 used in the formation of flowers and fruit at j 

 a season when the ordinary processes of 

 Vegetation are in abeyance. As in all ever- I 

 green plants, the leaves seem varnished on the | 

 upper surface, thus rendering them impervious 

 to the soaking rains of winter, and also pre- \ 

 venting the undue evaporation of the juces. j 

 Slightly magnified, the under surface is seen 

 to be beautifully pitted with minute glands, j 

 The veins are often white, invariably so in the j 

 small-leaved woodland form, and may be ! 

 seen radiating through the dark-green sub- 

 stance of the leaf forming a regular net-work. 

 The whole of the flower stalks, the young 

 shoots and leaves, and often the under surface 

 of the mature leaves are covered with a scurfy 

 pubescence, under a lens this is seen to be 

 formed of stellate hairs, the points or rays of 

 the star vary in different varieties, as many 

 as 15 being found in some, and often so closely 

 interlaced, as to give a felted appearance to 

 the young twigs, they will amply repay a close 

 examination. 



Economically the ivy is not very valuable, 

 there is a prejudice against it for causing 

 damp in houses, over which it climbs, and a 

 better founded dislike to its unchecked spread 

 in a wood. It is chiefly in request for internal 

 decoration in winter. Its ornamental char- 

 acter is universally admitted, clothing a 



decaying tree in the forest the poet has aptly 

 sung : — 



"Should aught be unlovelv which thus can 



shed 



Grace on the dying, and leaves on the dead." 

 Sheep eat the leaves readily, and in hard 

 winters it might be useful for forage. Its 

 juices are acrid and astringent, the berries 

 are emetic and purgative, but are not held in 

 high repute. Formerly the leaves were much 

 used as a remedy for cuts, and especially burns. 

 Salves and poultices made from them were 

 supposed to be especially powerful in drawing 

 morbid humours from the body. It was 

 supposed to be under the influence of Saturn. 

 By the ancients it was held in great esteem, 

 in the Greek mythology it was sacred to 

 Bacchus, his chaplet was formed of its en- 

 twined twigs, as also was the poet's crown. 

 Its leaves were used in their libations at the 

 shrine of the God of Wine. An old writer 

 says that if wine is stood in an ivy cup, it 

 will soak through, so great is its antipathy to 

 that plant. And old Culpepper says so great 

 is this antipathy that if one hath got a surfeit 

 by drinking of wine, his speediest cure is to 

 drink a draught of the same wine, wherein a 

 handful of ivy leaves, being first bruised, 

 have been boiled. By the Egyptians it was 

 consecrated to Osiris, and it is said one 

 of the Ptolemys caused the impress of an ivy 

 leaf to be branded on the foreheads of the 

 Israelites, as a badge of servitude. In the 

 language of flowers it is the emblem of 

 charity, because it covers over the evidences 

 of neglect and decay ; and of friendship and 

 fidelity, because it clings so closely to the 

 object round which it twines. It is the only 

 representative of the Natural Order Araliacecz, 

 found in Britain. The name Hedera is of 

 uncertain etymology, and is the Latin name 

 for the ivy, the specific name Helix is given 

 because of its twining habit of growth. On 

 the Western coasts, from Carnarvon to 

 Cornwall, and the Isle of Wight, a peculiar 

 parasite Orobanclic Hedera may be found 

 growing on the roots of ivy. 



