ON GROWING IVY IN PLEASURE-GROUNDS AND UPON LAWNS. 
I!) 
winter, when things of that beautiful nature are rarely or never met with, except 
in a hothouse. And one of its highest recommendations is that it is suitable for 
the smallest places, and may, in fact, be most properly introduced to limited 
gardens. 
An additional way in which Ivy may be employed advantageously in adorning 
pleasure-grounds, is by inserting old stumps or fragments of the trunks of trees, in 
picturesque spots, and planting Ivy at their base, that it may mantle them with its 
ever-verdant foliage. We have seen objects thus prepared which produced an 
exceedingly attractive effect ; composing, in some instances, a sort of evergreen 
pillar, and in others a varied and irregular mass of verdure, which was improved 
rather than depreciated by occasional pieces of the dead trunk or branches being 
evident. 
Most persons accustomed to notice the individual features of a landscape, must 
have remarked the beauty of the pillars of Ivy which are sometimes found in 
woods, and caused by the plant having destroyed or overgrown the tree to which 
it had clung. The extreme vigour of the Ivy, in such instances, enables it to throw 
out its branches several feet beyond the trunk ; and when the top of the tree has 
perished, the pillar thus created is highly delightful. Such an object, then, divested 
of its tallness, which would be disagreeable but for its being among other trees, is 
obtained by the plan of which we are speaking. And it can be of any height, or 
any dimensions, within reasonable limits, as the nature of the locality may seem to 
dictate. If not more than from eight to ten feet high, it might even stand out on 
an open lawn, and would become, in a few years, a most richly picturesque addition 
to the pleasure-garden. 
We were much struck with observing, last year, in Richmond Park and 
elsewhere, the association of Ivy with the common hawthorn ; and with the 
mention of this we shall close our paper. It is customary to plant the hawthorn 
in parks, for the sake of its beautiful blossoms in spring, and its handsome red 
berries during autumn. In the cases referred to, the Ivy has either been planted 
with the trees, or has risen spontaneously about the time of planting ; for its stems 
are quite as thick as those of the hawthorn, and it occupies, with its branches and 
leaves, all the centre of the tree. The consequence of this union is, that the plants 
are interesting in the winter as well as the summer, and that, in spring, when the 
delicate green foliage and white inflorescence of the hawthorn is in perfection, it is 
surmounted by a large coronet of the deepest verdure, and thus exhibits a group 
of colours which can never be duly admired till it is personally witnessed. 
Our practical deduction is, of course, that, in planting the hawthorn in parks, 
it is advisable to put in a plant or two of Ivy at the bottom of the stem, and thus 
specifically ensure the beauty which we should in vain endeavour to portray. 
