6 Rhodora [JANUARY 
ARCEUTHOBIUM PUSILLUM IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
LG Jic. 
(Plate 13.) 
Untit the spring of 1898, the only localities in New England in 
which the so-called Small Mistletoe, Arceuthobium pusillum, had been 
found and reported by botanists were Lebanon and Canaan, New 
Hampshire, where it was collected by Prof. H. G. Jesup in 1883, and 
the station near Shelburne, New Hampshire, discovered in September, 
1885, by Professor W. G. Farlow. It has been long known in the 
Adirondacks in New York State, and has been found in Pennsylvania. 
It is only during the past two years that several new stations have 
been added to the range of the plant in New England, and further 
investigation will probably show it to be more generally distributed 
than is commonly supposed. 
In the course of an examination of some lands appropriated by the 
Metropolitan Water Board, in the region about Boylston, Massachusetts, 
for the purpose of establishing the Wachusett Reservoir, and increasing the 
water supply for Boston and adjacent towns, I found this little parasite 
upon the Black Spruce, Picea Mariana (P. nigra, Link) growing in a 
small sphagnous swamp less than a mile north of Boylston station on 
the Massachusetts Central railroad. It is two and a half miles from 
West Boylston station or almost half-way between it and the Clinton 
station and nearly in a straight line between the two, close to the point 
where the Boylston, Clinton and Sterling township lines adjoin, most of 
the swamp being in the latter township. The location is approximately 
thirty-five miles west of Boston. 
This swamp is about three hundred and seventy-five feet above sea- 
level and the area covered by Spruce affected by the Mistletoe is not 
more than six or eight acres in extent. In no case were the spruces 
more than twenty feet in height, averaging less than half that stature 
and especially dwarf on the more boggy or “quaking” parts of the 
swamp. With them were associated small Red Maples, Larches, 
Alders, Andromedas, Kalmia angustifolia and Kalmia glauca, Gay- 
lussacia resinosa, and other trees and shrubs usually found in such 
situations, besides trailing cranberries, pitcher plants, etc. 
The mistletoe was first discovered upon the spruce branches on 
April 21, 1898. It was then apparently in full bloom, the yellow 
