BEAUTY AND USE OF IVY. 
185 
SERAPIAS. 
S. cordigera longipetala and lingua, are both very desirable plants. 
They will grow in a mixture of .leaf mould and sand, and should receive the shelter 
of a cold greenhouse. 
SPIRANTHES. 
S. grand i flora and cernua require precisely the same treatment as the 
Neottias. The latter, however, is nearly hardy, requiring only a little shelter in a 
frame. 
BEAUTY AND USE OF IVY. 
Why is it, we may reasonably ask, that every one is pleased with the common 
ivy ? There is a charm about that plant which all feel, but none can tell why. 
Observe it hanging from the arch of some old bridge, and consider the degree of 
interest it gives to that object. The bridge itself may be beautifully situated ; the 
stream passing through its arches clear and copious, but still it is the ivy which 
gives the finish and picturesque effect. Mouldering towers, and castles, and ruined 
cloisters, interest our feelings in a great degree, more or less, by the circumstance 
of their being covered or not with ivy. Precipices, which else would exhibit only 
their naked barren walls, are clothed by it in a rich and beautiful vesture. Old 
trees, whose trunks it surrounds, assume a great variety of aspect ; and, indeed, it 
is a most important agent in forming the beauty and variety of rural landscape. It 
is also as useful as it is beautiful ; and among its uses I would include the very 
thing of which I am now speaking, for I have no idea that the forms and colours 
in nature please the eye by a sort of chance. If I admire the ivy clinging to and 
surmounting some time-worn tower, and the various tints that diversify the parts 
of the ruin not hidden by it, I can only refer the pleasure I experience to the 
natural construction of the human mind, which the Almighty has formed to feel a 
pleasure in contemplating the external world around it. Who is insensible to the 
beauties of nature at the rising and setting of the summer's sun ? Who can behold 
the moon-beams reflected from some silent river, lake, or sea, and not feel happy 
in the sight ? Not, I believe, in early life, but when hardened in the ways of men, 
when the chief good pursued is the accumulation of wealth, the acquisition of 
power, or the pursuit of pleasure, so called, — then mankind lose a sense of the 
beauties of nature, but never, perhaps, till then. A love for them is inherent in 
the mind, and almost always shows itself in youth ; and, if cherished at that period 
by education, would seldom be destroyed, or become in after life as it now so 
generally is. 
The ivy is of vast advantage to the smaller birds, as it affords them shelter in 
winter, and a retreat for building their nests in spring and summer. It is in fruc- 
tification in October and November ; and the sweet juice which its flowers exude 
supports an infinity of insects in autumn, while its berries are a store of nutriment 
for many birds in the early spring. 
We may all recollect how often we have seen the ivy in October, and the bloom 
VOL. II.— NO. XX. BB 
