Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/494

 476 IVREA great fertility. It is drained by a few small rivers, the principal of which are the Lahu, Tabetah, and Cavully. There are a number of small native towns on the coast, among which are Grand Lahu, Jack Lahu, Jack-Jack, and Grand Ivorytown, which has a considerable trade in gold dust, palm oil, and ivory. The French trading station of Grand Bassam has been abandoned since 1870. IVREA (anc. Eporedia), a town of Italy, in the province and 30 m. H. N. E. of the city of Turin ; pop. about 10,000. It is walled and for- tified, and beautifully situated at the foot of the Alps, at the entrance of the Val d'Aosta, and on the river Dora Baltea, on the opposite side of which is one of the two suburbs. The Gothic cathedral is believed to occupy the site of a temple of Apollo, and several of the par- ish churches are very old. It is the see of a bishop, and contains an episcopal seminary and various schools. Woollens, cottons, silks, ver- micelli, and other articles are manufactured, and there are dye and tile works. Eporedia was a considerable town of Cisalpine Gaul, and the strength of its strategical position, com- manding two great passes of the Alps, gave it importance. Ivrea was a marquisate under Charlemagne, which in the 13th century was united with Savoy. IVRY-LA-BATAILLE, a village of France, in the department of Eure and on the river Eure, about 40 m. W. of Paris; pop. about 1,200. It contains the ruins of an ancient castle and renowned manufactories of wind instruments. It passed through many vicissitudes during the wars with England, and Dunois captured it in 1449 and destroyed the fortifications. It is most celebrated for the decisive victory gained on the adjoining plain by Henry IV., March 14, 1590, over the forces of the league under the duke of Mayenne. The obelisk on the site of the battle, pulled down in 1793, was restored by Napoleon in 1809. IVKY-SIR-SEIXE, a village of France, on the left bank of the Seine, about a mile from the southern enceinte of Paris; pop. in 1866, 10,- 199. It is pleasantly situated, contains a fine parish church, a terrace of an old palace, a re- nowned maison de sante for lunatics, and ex- tensive wine vaults in natural caves cut in the rocks. There are many handsome villas around it. Vast quantities of wine bottles and many other articles are manufactured here. The fort of Ivry figured conspicuously during the sie^e of Paris in 1870-'71. IVY, a common name, from the Anglo- Saxon, for species of the genus hedera (Celtic hedra, a cord) of the araliacea, a family which is closely related to the umbelliferai, but differ- ent in the structure of its fruit, which has always more than two carpels. The genus hedera consists of evergreen climbing shrubs, with simple leaves and the flowers in umbels. Its most familiar representative is the com- mon or English ivy, H. 'helix, a plant which con- tributes largely to the English landscape, and IVY around which are clustered so much of poetry and legend. This is found all over Britain, in western and southern Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa, but scarcely at all in central Europe. In its wild state the slender lower branches spread upon the ground, while English Ivy (Ilcdera helix). the main stems climb upon trees, buildings, and other supports to a great height, by means of aerial rootlets. The leaves are three- to five- lobed, and of a pleasing dark green color. The plant rarely flowers until it has reached the summit of the support upon which it climbs ; it then throws out from the main stem short flowering branches, upon which the leaves are not lobed, like those upon the other stems, but nearly oval ; each branch terminates in a sort of panicle of numerous small umbels of yel- lowish green flowers; these open in early autumn ; they are fragrant, and very attractive to bees; the berries, which are black, ripen the following spring. The ivy climbs to the tops of the tallest trees and surmounts the highest buildings ; the largest specimens in England have trunks 10 to 11 J in. in diameter; it is a very long-lived plant. Ivy formerly enjoyed some medicinal reputation, but it is scarcely used at present ; the berries, which to man are emetic and cathartic, are readily eaten by various birds ; in warm climates it exudes an aromatic, resinous matter, said to possess stimulant properties. In England the ivy nat- urally clothes ruins, old trees, and rocky places, and thus forms a prominent feature in the landscape ; but besides this it is largely used in gardening, it being employed to cover build- ings, to form evergreen walls, and to make screens to hide unsightly objects. In this country ivy cannot be considered as certainly hardy north of Philadelphia ; in the sheltered streets of cities like New York it has some- times attained a large size, to be destroyed by an unusually severe winter ; it is not only the severity of the winters at its northern limit