Great age of ivy

The Ivy lives to a great age, if we may judge from the specimens that overrun some of the oldest edifices of Europe, which are said to have been covered with it for centuries, and where the main stems are seen nearly as large as the trunk of a middle sized tree. "Whole ages have fled, and their works decayed, And nations have scattered been; But the stout old Ivy shall never fade From its hale and hearty green; The brave old plant in its lonely days, Shall fatten upon the past; For the stateliest building man can raise, Is the Ivy's food at last."