FRIENDSHIP. 
115 
He clothes them with his spirit-ehilling green, 
His dark and favourite ivy, cheerless plant, 
Sacred to desolation! 
But we love it best as the emblem of 
friendship. We rejoice to see the ivied oak, 
or 
“ aged elm, in ivy bound; ” 
and we are sure that none will deny its 
claim to this symbol, since it yields shelter 
to some of our smaller birds. Wordsworth 
shall tell us how they harbour ’mid its fo¬ 
liage ; — 
Prom behind the roof 
Rose the slim ash and massy sycamore, 
Blending their diverse foliage with the green 
Of ivy, flourishing and thick, that clasped 
The huge round chimneys, harbour of delight 
For wren and redbreast, where they sit and sing 
Their slender ditties when the trees are bare. 
It is a popular error that the ivy is a para¬ 
sitical plant, deriving its support from the 
tree which it environs, when in fact it is sus¬ 
tained by its own vital powers; its roots are 
fixed in the earth, and the sap is conveyed 
into its branches by the same laws which 
regulate the vital functions of other mem¬ 
bers of the vegetable kingdom. 
