2H E D 
The trunk in old trees is covered with an afh-coloured 
chopped bark; in the young branches it is of a green 
or purple colour. Leaves alternate,, evergreen, glofly, 
fmooth ; while the plant creeps, three-lobed or fome- 
t.imes five-lobed ; but, when it quits its fupport, ovate : 
they are fometimes tinflured with red, fometimes painted 
with white veins, particularly in the young branches. 
The flowers are yellowifh, or greenifh white, in a very 
clcfe thick umbel, at the extremities of the twigs. The 
berry is placed below the receptacle of the flower, and 
is crowned with the five-cornered ftreaked rudiment of 
it; at firft it is fucculent, with a purple juice; after¬ 
wards it becomes coriaceous, dry, and very obfcurely 
quinquangular. The five cells are inverted by their 
proper filky-white membrane: the partitions are very 
thin, one or more frequently obliterated when the berry 
is in a ftate, of maturity. The feeds are wrinkled and 
yellowifh. 
It is found wild all over Europe; but Linnaeus fays 
it is by no means common in Sweden. Kalm remarks, 
that he never faw the common ivy in North America, 
except once againft a done building, and this was appa¬ 
rently brought from Europe, and planted there. Thun- 
berg remarked it in Japan, and fays that the leaves are 
commonly undivided there, and not lobed. It begins 
to flower with us in September. Being fo late a blower, 
it is much reforted to by bees and flies, when little other 
food is to be had. The berries increafe during the win¬ 
ter, are full-formed in February, and ripen in April ; 
furnifliing food for wild pigeons, blackbirds, thrulhes, 
&c. in the fpring. Blackbirds-and feveral other birds 
build their nerts in the ftump. Sheep are fond of ivy; 
it is a warm and wholefoiue food for them in hard wea¬ 
ther, the fhepherds therefore in fnpwy feafons cut down 
branches for their flocks to browze on. Cato direfrts 
that, in a fcarcity of hay, cattle fliould be foddered with 
it. The ancients held ivy in great efteem. It formed 
the poetical garland.. Bacchus is reprefented crowned 
with it to prevent intoxication; and Homer defcribes 
his heroes as drinking out of a cup made of the wood. 
As a medicine it is fcarcely admitted into modern 
practice. The leaves have a naufeous tafte. Haller 
fays they are given in Germany as a fpecific in the atro¬ 
phy of children. Common people apply them to iffues 
and corns. The berries have a little acidity ; they 
purge and vomit. In G.allicia they give the feeds bruifed 
in pleurifies, to the quantity of two tea-fpoonfuls, every 
eight hours. In vParm climates a refinous juice exfudes 
From the rtalks, or may be procured by wounding them ; 
it is infipid and inodorous, inflames in burning, w ith a 
pleafant aromatic fmell, and has then a flight aftringency. 
It tinges fpirit of wiae of a reddilh brown colour, and is 
faid to be aperient, refolutive, and balfanuc; but it is 
not in ufe. The wood is loft and porous, fo as to tranf- 
mit liquids, if turned of a fufticient degree of thinnels. 
The roots are ufed by leather-cutters to whet their 
knives upon. The branches, being very full of leaves, 
are as effectual as any thing to protect the tender blof- 
foms of apricots, peaches, and nectarines, againft the cold 
winds and frofts of February and March. 
In the latter part of the 17th century, when it was the 
fafhipn to fill gardens with all forts of Iheered evergreens, 
many of.thefe plants were trained into round heads, 
clipped into globes, cones, &c. and being fo hardy as 
not to be injured by weather, and growing in any foil, 
were then much efteemed ; fince this tafte has been ex¬ 
ploded, the ivy is feldom admitted into gardens, unlefs 
to cover walls, or run over ruins, &c. for which pur- 
pofes no plant is fo well adapted. Mr. Curtis, how¬ 
ever, obferves, that few people are acquainted with the 
beauty of ivy when l'uffered to run up a flake, and at 
length to form itfelf into a rtandard ; the Angular com¬ 
plication of its branches, and the vivid hue of its leaves, 
give it one of the firft places amongft evergreens in a 
Ihrubbery. In woods, when fullered to grow large and 
H E D 
rampant, this plant, by twining round the bodies of tim¬ 
ber-trees, does them great damage, and therefore fliould 
be carefully deftroyed, as it may eafily be, by cutting, 
any where through its trunk. But in ornamental out¬ 
lets, where evergreens do not abound, a few trees cover¬ 
ed with ivy have a very pleating eflfeft ; and induce 
birds of fong'to haunt thofe thickets for the fake of the • 
berries and Ihelter. Ivy alfo produces very piCturefquc 
effects in large mafles of ruined buildings. Linnaeus af¬ 
firms, that it does no injury to buildings; but that can 
fcarcely be admitted, wben we confider that it muft har¬ 
bour wet and filth, and that the branches will make their 
way into any fiflure or defeft in the wall, and enlarge it. 
Befides the varieties enumerated above, which arife 
merely from age and fituation, there are two that may 
be found in the nurferies; one with filver-ftxiped leaves, 
and the other with yellowifti leaves on the top of the 
branches. 
2. Hedera capitata, or clufter-flowered ivy: leaves 
elliptical, entire; racemes compound, terminating; 
flowers fertile, in little heads. Stem arborefcent, eight 
feet high in the ftove, ereCt, cylindrical, abruptly branch¬ 
ed. Bark brown, a little cracked. Branches curved 
upwards, leafy, terminated by flowers. Leaves fcat- 
tered, more crowded towards the tops of the branches, 
on foot-ftalks, wide, fpreading, pointed, waved on the 
margin, very fmooth, obfaurely three-nerved, veiny, 
bright green. Jacquin, the firft difcoverer, long, agw 
fulpefted that this fpecies belonged to the genus He¬ 
dera, or ivy ; but later authors have kept it in til a! of 
Aralia. This fine plant was difcovered in the woods of 
Martinico, by proleflbr Jacquin, and in Jamaica by Dr. 
William Wright and Mr. Francis Mafl'on. In the ca¬ 
talogue of the royal garden at Kew, it is faid to have 
been introduced in 1778, by Mr. William Forfyth ; but 
it exifted in the collection of the late marquis of Rock¬ 
ingham long before the year 1777. It flowered for the 
firft time in Europein the ftove of the marchionefs in 1787. 
3. Hedera quinquefolia, or five-leaved ivy : leaves 
quinate, ovate, ferrate. This fpecies grows naturally 
in all the northern parts of America, was firft brought 
to Europe from Canada, and has been chiefly employed 
to cover walls or high buildings, which this plant will 
do in a fhort time, for it will llioot almoft twenty feet 
in one year; but, as the leaves fall off in autumn, and 
are late before they come out in the fpring, it is not 
much efteemed, unlefs where better things will not 
thrive; not being injured by fmoke, or clolenefs of air, 
it is proper to cover buildings in great towns. The 
ftalks put out fibres, like the common ivy, which inft- 
nuate themfelves into the joints of walls. From Parkin- 
fon it appears that it was cultivated here in 1629. Juflieu 
is of opinion that.it fliould be removed to the genus Vi- 
tis, or vine. 
4. Hedera pendula, or hanging ivy: leaves ovate- 
lanceolate, entire; peduncles very long, pendulous. 
5. Hede.ra nutans, or nodding ivy: leaves elliptic, co¬ 
riaceous; umbels nodding, hemifpherical. Natives of 
Jamaica. 
6. Hedera terebinthinacea, or turpentine ivy : leaves 
in levens, elliptic, quite eutire. Native of Ceylon. 
Propagation and Culture. The different fpecies are 
eafily propagated by their trailing branches, which 
fend forth roots their whole length; or by cuttings, 
planted on a fliady border in autumn, which by the 
following autumn will be fit to plant where they are 
defigned to remain; or by feeds fown foon after they 
are ripe, which is in the beginning of April: if thele 
be kept moift and Ihaded, they will grow the fame 
fpring, otherwife they will remain a year in the ground. 
SeeGLECHOMA. 
HEDERACE'FE, f. [from hedera , Lat. ivy.] The 
name of the forty-fixth order in Linnaeus’s Fragments of 
a Natural Method, confiftfng of ivy, and a few other 
genera which feem nearly allied to it. 
HEDERA'CEOUS, 
