500 



Reproductive Economy of the Mistletoe. 



Art. VI. Fa&% in relation to the Reproductive Economy of the 

 Mistletoe (Vzscum album L.). By the Rev. J. S. Henslow, A.M., 

 King's Professor of Botany in the University of Cambridge, &c. 



sir, .^waivau 



As every thing connected with the history of the mistletoe 

 is interesting, I send -you-a- s li ght s to sk^ (Jig. 63.) of a fact, 



which I have just noticed in the 



iVm Wri^fcW - ro 1 °. d ? ? f | ts RJ9pagating ™ *«%te 



•■63 &^.-' w ^rt : ha&,becQw.attAcbed. Ihe 



specimen was cut from #/ cyata t/fee 



in the botanic garden, particularly 



infested with this parasite; and, as it 



^eemefl ^mposraivre* to* l snppose the 



numerous plants which were upon it 



could all have originated from seeds 



iti$&r9$flffiflAVP¥''- l ^ e surface of the 



% found that a connection existed be- 

 tween some of the plants upon it, 

 by means of dark green strings ex- 

 tending from one to another through, 

 the substance of the bark. These 

 strings gave off other portions of a 

 lighter colour, at right angles to 

 their own direction, into the woody 

 part of the tree. I should think, 

 therefore, that there can be no doubt 

 of the mistletoe being propagated 

 somewhat in the manner of those 

 terrestrial plants which, like the potato, possess rhizomata, 

 or underground stems, from whose surface young plants are 

 developed at intervals. UirK> «jfc[ y diorri buBmaioo Imn Jmrn £j;rn 



[(isirw sdS am > Sir > y° urs > &c - 

 Cambridge, Aug. 20. 1833. J. S. Henslow. 



rr-rVi ^ 9/1 J IO .1 JIB I 



In relation to the habits and to habitats of the mistletoe, but not farther 

 connected with the above most interesting discovery respecting the repro- 

 ductive economy of this plant, some notices will be found in Vol. II. 

 p. 294., and Vol. V. p. 48. 503. and 505. Some facts on the conditions 

 exhibited by some young plants of mistletoe, raised from seeds in the 

 Oxford Botanic Garden, have been recently published in Baxter's British 

 Flowering Plants. — J. D. .^ *j Q .^ia ^ .ggyki 



* a, Plant of mistletoe. b b, Strings (or rhizomata?) given off by the plant, into the sub- 



stance of the bark. c, Sections of roots descending from the removed portion of b into the 

 wood of the crab tree. </, Young plant, originating in a siring, similar to b. e, Section of 

 a root of a plant as large as a, penetrating the wood. r 



to iiidrnnfi otn m j^y*s&jF>s>KL isrijo one yj^ionp 

 -oil ,iQ lo mihmdo'iuoH gunya sdi eoiuiiJanoD it .cgon i 



