VINES AND CLIMBING PLANTS. 
287 
old trunk and fantastic branches of which were enwreathed 
with the luxuriant and pliant shoots, and rich foliage, of 
some beautiful vine, clothing even its decayed limbs with 
verdure ; and hanging down in gay festoons, or loose negli- 
gent masses, waving to and fro in the air. The European 
Ivy, ( Hedera Helix ,) is certainly one of the finest, if not the 
very finest climbing plant, (or, more properly, creeping vine, 
for by means of its little fibres or rootlets on the stems, it 
will attach itself to trees, walks, or any other substance,) 
with which we are acquainted. It possesses not only very 
fine dark green palmated foliage, in great abundance ; but 
the foliage has that agreeable property of being evergreen, — 
which, while it enhances its value tenfold, is at the same 
time so rare among vines. The yellow flowers of the Ivy 
are great favourites with bees, from their honied sweetness ; 
they open in autumn, and the berries ripen in the spring. 
When planted at the root of a tree, it will often, if the head 
is not too thickly clad with branches, ascend to the very 
topmost limbs ; and its dark green foliage, wreathing itself 
about the old and furrowed trunk, and hanging in careless 
drapery from the lower branches, adds greatly to the ele- 
gance of even the most admirable tree. Spenser describes 
the appearance of the Ivy growing to the tops of the trees, 
“ Emongst the rest, the clamb’ring Ivie grew, 
Knitting his wanton arms with grasping hold, 
Lest that the poplar happely should rew 
Her brother’s strokes, whose boughs she doth enfold 
With her lythe twigs, till they the top survew, 
And paint with pallid green her buds of gold. 
The fine contrasts between the dark colouring of the 
leaves of the Ivy, and the vernal and autumnal tints of the 
foliage of deciduous trees, are also highly pleasing. Indeed 
