208 
THE FLORIST AND P0M0L0GIST. 
[ September, 
are also less liable to the attacks of mildew. By the end of September they 
should be removed to their winter quarters under glass, plenty of air being 
admitted on all favourable opportunities, while fire heat is used merely to 
exclude frost and damp. 
Somerley Gardens. H. Chilman. 
THE LEAFING AND BOOTING OF IVY AND HOLLY. 
« HOSE acquainted with plants know that the leaves of some of them 
vary in character, and perhaps none more so than those of the Holly 
f and Ivy. I recollect that some years back a writer in Notes and 
Queries observed, that the prickly leaves on the lower branches of the 
Holly were a “wise provision of Nature,” to prevent cattle browsing 
on them. But this is an erroneous supposition, for in general aged Hollies 
have smooth leaves on their under branches, especially in exposed situations ; 
and when their tops are cut off, whether high or low, the fresh shoots have 
the usual prickly leaves, but those seldom produce berries like the aged, 
smooth, oblong-leaved branches. The same may be said of the Ivy, whose 
abnormal-flowering branches have spear-shaped leaves, different from those 
of the young shoots which root or cling to walls and trees. In this process 
the Ivy is only making a sure foundation for its festoons which cover them, 
and the blossoms of these are the last to attract bees and other insects late 
in the autumn. The birds also find a last resource in the Ivy berries in 
February at the end of winter ; but its beauty, and also the food for insects 
and birds are lost by Ivy being shorn or cut, and in such cases the leaves 
come of the usual form. 
Not so, however, when Ivy is grown as a dwarf standard bush; then the 
young shoots are rootless, and having nothing to fasten themselves to, they 
soon become flowering branches like those just described. Still their 
offspring by cuttings are like those of common Ivy; indeed this could not 
be otherwise, for the bark or rind of plants which produces roots inherits the 
virtue of the seed of the original kinds, and upon its truthful keeping, hinges 
the whole art of preserving or rearing plants true to their kinds. I mention 
this in order to notice that Mr. Forsyth makes use of the rooting habits of 
Ivy, to favour his opinion as to the cause of “ air roots ” on Vines. He 
observes that “ the buds from the part of the Ivy which creeps and clings 
produces one style of plant, and the bud from that of Ivy which flowers and 
fruits produces a plant of quite another style and also says, that “ cuttings 
of a bush of Ivy will form a bush too.” But it is not so in other situations, 
as the following may serve to illustrate. Some years ago I had in pots 
several stunted bushy plants of Ivy, whose young shoots were rootless like 
those which hang down from trees. But after they were planted against an 
old stump they put forth fresh rooting shoots, which soon covered the whole 
