1877. ] 
THE ENGLISH IVY. 
103 
for a week or two. Next, remove tliem into the greenhouse for three weeks or 
a month, where the leaves will become stiff, strong, and healthy. This will 
bring us into July, when the plants must be removed into the open air, prefer¬ 
ably at the foot of a south wall, and watered every day or two during hot 
weather. If September brings hot weather, leave them alone while it lasts. If 
not, take them into the greenhouse for the winter at once. 
The plan here described is not my own, though I have long practised a 
hardening system of the kind. It was taken from an article in one of Van 
Houtte’s catalogues, and has been now tested here for several years with the best 
results. A horticultural friend in my neighbourhood sent me twelve of these 
plants last spring to try the system upon. He had had them ten years without 
flowering one. Six are now flowering strongly, and the rest are in the highest 
of health. 
I omit much detail, confining myself to essentials. Any person conversant 
with gardening under glass will know what to do as to general good treatment.— 
E. Trevor Clarke, Daventry. ■ 
THE ENGLISH IVY. 
^I^IHOSE who are acquainted with the common English Ivy, Hedera Helix^ ' 
know that the leaves of its creeping stems are five-lobed and five-pointed, 
W while those on the offshoots, close to the clusters of flowers, are oblong, 
or ovate, and of various sizes, a thing observable also in other kinds of 
plants. Yet if the forms of leaves vary so much as those of the Ivy are known 
to do, botanists might well hesitate before distinguishing new plants by this 
peculiarity; nevertheless, as a rule, there can be no better guide for specific 
distinctions, because the leaves of plants are more readily seen than their blossoms 
and seed-vessels. 
The young shoots of Ivy sprout out roots somewhat like centipedes’ feet at 
their tips, on the shaded side, which enable them to creep up walls and trees ; 
not only rendering them stedfast, but also serving to imbibe nutriment, especially 
in damp weather. But it is not so with the off-shoots, for these, being exposed 
to light and air, have no roots on the bark, and derive their support from the 
other branches ; they are also of less vigorous growth, which tends to fruitful¬ 
ness. The same applies to dwarf Ivy in pots; the leaves in that case soon 
become pointless, like the blooming branches. It wotild seem fair to conjecture 
that stunted growth is connected with the variation of Ivy-leaves, as in the case 
of the Holly ; but opposed to that stands the fact that Ivy, growing on the ground 
under the shade of trees, though weak, never loses the pretty five-pointed leaves, 
and consequently is barren of blooming branches. 
Though Ivy creeps or grows about in all manner of ways, yet I never observed 
it adhering to walls or trees and at the same time growing downwards. Thus, 
when the twigs reach the coping of a wall, they dangle about, instead of descending 
to cover the other side; nay, even when they are nailed downwards, the points 
