Ivy
an ornamental evergreen climbing shrub. It belongs to the same family as ginseng and spikenard, which, however, it does not seem to resemble. Our American ivy or Virginia creeper is not an ivy. Our poison ivy is related to the sumach. The ivy of tradition is a famous climber, holding on to stone walls and trellises by means of numerous rootlets. Authorities claim that ivy drains an old wall of moisture by means of its rootlets and that it preserves woodwork and masonry instead of hastening decay. Ivy adds greatly to the beauty of England. It is preeminently a plant enshrined in sentiment and song. Gray in his Elegy speaks of "yonder ivy-mantled tower." Dickens' most spirited poem is The Ivy:
Oh, a dainty plant is the ivy green,
That creepeth o'er ruins old!
Of right choice food are his meals, I ween,
In his cell so lone and cold.
Creeping where no life is seen,
A rare old plant is the ivy green.
That creepeth o'er ruins old!
Of right choice food are his meals, I ween,
In his cell so lone and cold.
Creeping where no life is seen,
A rare old plant is the ivy green.
Volume III · Aiton’s Encyclopedia