Cjl'llCl'Ct Ijl'lif. Natural Order: Araliacece — Ginseng Family . 
VY is an evergreen vine, native of Great Britain, and attains 
the height of forty or fifty feet, sustaining itself by tufts of 
fibers, which insert themselves into the crevices of the walls 
that support it. Hedera is its old Latin name, and helix in 
Greek and Latin signifies twisted. After having grown to its 
utmost height, its climbing character ceases, “the leaf changes 
from a palmate to a lengthened oval shape; it then forms a bush two 
or three feet high, surmounted by an abundance of branches of inter¬ 
esting greenish flowers ” that bloom in October. They frequently attain 
a great age. One is mentioned by De Candolle as being four hundred 
and thirty-three years old, which measured six feet in circumference at 
the base, covering a surface of over seventy square yards with its hand¬ 
some foliage. It was used among the Greeks to decorate their heroes and 
poets, and also as a crown to Bacchus, although he is represented at other 
times crowned with grape leaves as the god of wine. 
$Hng 
♦ 
O HE clung to him with woman’s love, 
^ Like ivy to the oak, 
While on his head, with crushing force, 
Earth’s chilling tempest broke. _ 
CAST he stealeth on, though he wears no wings, 
A And a staunch old heart has he! 
How closely he twineth, how tight he clings 
To his friend, the huge oak tree! 
And slily he traileth along the ground, 
And his leaves he gently waves, 
And he joyously twines and hugs around 
The rich mould of dead men’s graves, 
Creeping where no life is seen, 
A rare old plant is the ivy green. 
— Charles Dickens, 
HAD a friend that lov’d me — 
A I was his soul: he liv’d not but in me; 
We were so close within each other’s breast 
The rivets were not found that join’d us first. 
— Dryden, 
_ 174 _ 
