THE IVY. 
64 
of that wonderful ordination, whereby the beneficence 
and wisdom of Providence are manifested : without the 
agency of evaporation, not dwelling on the infinitude 
of effects and results, no vegetation could exist, no ani- 
mal life continue. 
The ivy (hedera helix), the dark-looking ivy, almost 
covers with its thick foliage the pollards in our hedge- 
rows ; and, creeping up the sides of the old barn, and 
chimney of the cottage, nearly hides them from our 
sight ; affording a sheltered roosting-place to many poor 
birds, and is almost their only refuge in the cold season 
of the year. But the ivy can boast of much more ex- 
tensive service to the poor wayfaring beings of creation, 
than the merely affording them a covering from the 
winds of winter. Those two extreme quarters of our 
year, autumn and spring, yield to most animals but a 
very slender and precarious supply of food ; but the ivy 
in those periods saves many from want and death ; and 
the peculiar situations, in which it prefers to flourish, 
are essential to the preservation of this supply, as in 
less sheltered ones it would be destroyed. In the month 
of October the ivy blooms in profusion, and spreading 
over the warm side of some neglected wall, or the sunny 
bark of the broad ash on the bank, its flowers become 
a universal banquet to the insect race. The great 
black fly (musca grossa), and its numerous tribe, with 
multitudes of small winged creatures, resort to them ; 
and there we see those beautiful animals, the latest birth 
of the year, the admiral (vanessa atalanta) and peacock 
(vanessa 16) butterflies, hanging with expanded wings 
like open flowers themselves, enjoying the sunny gleam, 
and feeding on the sweet liquor that distils from the 
nectary of this plant. As this honey is produced in 
succession by the early or later expansion of the bud, 
it yields a constant supply of food, till the frosts of No- 
vember destroy the insects, or drive them to their win- 
ter retreats. Spring arrives ; and in the bitter months 
of March, April, and even May, at times, when the 
wild products of the field are nearly consumed, the ivy 
ripens its berries, and then almost entirely constitutes 
the food of the missel thrush, wood-pigeon, and some 
