381 



ON THE MISSELTOE.* 



By A. fr. DaviSy M. D., and Robert J. iV. Streeten, M. D. 



The Viscum album, or common white Misseltoe belongs to the class 

 DicBcia, order Tetrandria of Linneeua. In the natural arrangement 

 it is referred, in conjunction with Loranthus and some allied ge- 

 nera, to the Lorantheoe, which constituted a part of the second 

 section of Jussieu's order Caprifolia. 



The root of the Misseltoe is hard, and of a woody texture, and 

 destitute of fibres or radicles ; being, as Sir J ames Smith observed, 

 deeply incorporated with the wood of the tree on which it grows, 

 though perfectly distinct from its substance. The stem is from 

 eight to twelve or fourteen inches high, bushy, branching, repeat- 

 edly forked or divided in a Iwo-fold manner, with the divisions 

 springing from curiouslyconstructed joints, round, smooth, and of a 

 yellowish-green colour. The leaves are opposite, a pair springing 

 from the summit of each branchlet, evergreen^ lanceolate, blunt at 

 the extremity, smooth, with parallel ribs or veins, pale green, both 

 sides being equally coloured ; their texture is coriaceous or leathery, 

 almost woody. The flowers are axillary in the bosom of the pair 

 of leaves at the extremities of the branches ; they are five or six 

 together, forming small tufts or heads, and of a yellowish-green 

 colour. On the barren plant the flowers consist of a calyx, whicli 

 is only a slight margin ; a corolla of one petal, deeply divided 

 into four pointed segments ; and four sessile anthers, one of wliich 

 is inserted at the base of each division of the corolla. On the 

 fertile plant, the flowers consist of a bordered calyx ; four ovate 

 petals, and an ovate germen situated beneath the calyx, and crowned 

 with a blunt sessile stigma. The fruit is a globular white semi- 

 pellucid berry, resembling a white currant in size and appearance. 

 It is sweet to the taste, and contains a single heart-shaped seed, 

 imbedded in a viscid mucilage. 



The Misseltoe is a parasitical plant — a plant which grows upon, 

 and receives its nourishment from, some other. It has been ob- 

 served upon the ash, the elm, the maple, the hawthorn, the 

 pear, the apple, the service, the lime, the oak, the beech ? the 

 hornbeam, the fir, the willow, and the poplar. In this county it 

 grows abundantly upon the apple, the black poplar, and the lime ; 

 but in no instance, that we are aware of, has it been found on 

 the oak. It is of frequent occurrence in the southern and midland 

 counties, but it is rarely found in the northern, growing only ac- 

 cording to Mr. Gougli, at Lithe, near Kendal.f In Scotland it 

 is also rare, but has been observed in the woods of Mickleour, by 



* Read before the Worcestershire Natural History Society, Nov. 25th, 1834. 

 t With. Bot. Arr. ed. 3, v. 2, p. 203. 

 NO. VI. 3 E 



