402 
plint's i^atural history. 
[Book XYI 
It is a peculiarity of the white ivy to throw out arms from 
the middle of the leaves, with which it invariably embraces any 
object that may be on either side of it ; this is the case, too, 
with walls, even though it should not be able to clasp them. 
If the trunk is cut across in ever so many places, it will still 
live and thrive, having as many fresh roots as it has arms, by 
means of which it ensures safety and impunity, while at the 
same time it sucks and strangles the trees to which it clings. 
There are great differences also in the fruit of both the white 
ivy and the black ; for in some of them the berry is so bitter 
that birds will not touch it. There is an ivy also which grows 
upright, and stands without any support ; being the only 
one that does so among all the varieties, it has thence ob- 
tained the distinctive name of ^^cissos." The chamsecissos,^'' 
on the other hand, is never found except creeping upon the 
ground. 
CHAP. 63. (35.) THE SMILAX. 
Very similar to the ivy is a plant which first came from 
Cilicia, but is now more commonly found in Greece, and 
known by the name of smilax.^^ It has numerous thick stalks 
covered with joints, and thorny branches of a shrub-like form : 
the leaf resembles that of the ivy, but is not angular, while 
from the foot- stalk it throws out tendrils ; the flower is white, 
and has the smell of the lily. It bears clusters like those of 
the wild vine and not the ivy, and of a reddish colour. The 
larger berries contain three stones, the smaller but one only : 
these berries are black and hard. This plant is looked upon 
as ill-omened, and is consequently banished from ail sacred 
rites, and is allowed to form no part of chaplets ; having re- 
ceived this mournful character from the maiden Smilax, who 
upon her love being slighted by the youth Crocus, was trans- 
formed into this shrub. The common people, being mostly 
ignorant of this, not unfrequently take it for ivy, and pollute 
their festivities with its presence ; for who, in fact, is unaware 
16 This is the case sometimes with the black ivy, the Hedera arborea of 
C. Bauhin. Only isolated cases, however, are to be met with. 
^"^ There is an ivy of this kind, the Hedera himii repens of botanists ; 
but most of the commentators are of opinion that it is the ground ivy, the 
Glechoma hederacea of Linnaeus, that is spoken of. Sprengel takes it to 
be the Anthirrinum Azarina, from which opinion, however, Fee dissents. 
The Smilax aspera of Linnoeus ; the sarsaparilla plant. 
