PEJNTANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. He'd era. 
337 
HED'ERA.* Petals five, broadest at the base : Berry four 
or five-celled, three to five-seeded, juiceless, encircled 
by the calyx. 
H. he'lix. Leaves, some ovate, others lobed. 
Curt.—FI. Dan. 1027 —(E. Dot. 1267. E.)— Sheldr. 103 —Blackw. 188— 
Trag. 801 —Ger. 708. 2 and 1— Fuchs. 722 and 723— J. B. ii. 111. 1 and 
2—Dod. 4>13. 1 and 2— Lob. Obs. 336. 2, and 337. 1— Ger . Em. 857. 1 and 
2—Park. 678. 1, and 679. 4 —Matth. 624 and 625. 
When it trails on the ground its branches are small and weak, and its leaves 
have three lobes. Curt. In which state it does not produce fruit, and 
has been called Barren or Creeping Ivy , (in contradistinction to the 
Climbing or Berried Ivy , to which the term Helix is more especially ap¬ 
propriate. E.) When it climbs up walls or trees, it grows much stronger, 
and the leaf changes to egg-shaped. Curt. (This extraordinary diversity 
in the form and size of the leaves may perplex the novice, and indeed 
induced the old authors to conjecture specific distinction. The fibrous 
supports of Ivy are peculiar tendrils , not roots ; though they become real 
roots when trailing on the earth. Leaves glossy, from one to several 
inches over. Blossoms greenish white, forming aggregate, many-flowered, 
nearly spherical umbels. Berries black; sometimes mealy: Stamens 
standing wide apart, longer than the petals. E.) 
Common Ivy. (Irish: Oihin. Welsh: Eiddew ; Iorwg ; Aedorw. 
Gaelic : Eidliionn-na-craige. E.) Woods, hedges, and old buildings. 
S. Oct.+ 
* (A name conferred on this plant by Pliny ; and ingeniously conjectured to be a 
corruption of aclheerit , it adheres, or clings, to other trees, &c. E.) 
f The roots are used by leather-cutters to wet their knives upon, and when large form 
boxes, and even tables. Apricot and peach trees, covered with Ivy during the month of 
February, (perhaps merely on the principle of protection, for which purpose Fern, or Fir 
branches, are equally serviceable, E.) have been observed to bear fruit plentifully. Phil. 
Tr. No. 475. The leaves have a nauseous taste. (An ointment is made from them in the 
Highlands to cure burns. E.) Haller says they are given in Germany as a specific for 
the atrophy in children, and they may be advantageously applied to issues. The berries 
have a little acidity. They operate violently. (Powdered, they were given with vinegar, 
during the London plague, with good success, as a sudorific. Boyle. E.) In warm 
climates a resinous juice exudes from the old stems, (said to be strong smelling and attrac¬ 
tive to fish. E.) Horses and sheep eat Ivy. Goats and cows refuse it. Linn. (In winter 
sheep would seem to prefer it to grass, eagerly devouring it, nor will deer refuse it. 
E.) In severe weather it is stripped olf the trees as food for cattle. Mr. Hollefear. (Cows 
kept at winter grass eat it with considerable avidity. Mr. Oade Roberts.) Though 
Ivy must be acknowledged to injure young growing timber, (by its mechanical 
stricture rather than the extraction of nutriment-, which prevents due expansion, and 
in some small degree, possibly, by impoverishing the soil immediately adjacent;) 
Mr. Repton, in Linn. Tr. v. xi. endeavours to prove that it is not detrimental 
to trees ; that its sustenance is wholly obtained by means of its own root; (an assertion 
which seems to be confirmed by the fact that the largest plants of Ivy, when cut through at 
the bottom of their stems, immediately die ; and also from their flourishing equally well 
over innutritions stone walls, towers, &c.) ; that it often operates as a preservative from 
extreme cold; and that some of the largest-sized and soundest forest trees are such as 
have been entwined with ivy for a vast length of time. He insists that if this ornamental 
evergreen were subject to less general persecution, much benefit would arise both to the 
agriculturist and the sportsman despite the malediction of Langhorn : 
“ No flower can bear the Ivy's shade, 
No tree support its cold embrace.” 
VOI.. II. 
