580 



DOMESTIC NOTICE,S. 



generally, owiiij^ to the unusual severity of the 

 pasit winter, will be lishtcr than it has been since 

 1836.— Ed.] 



Wintering Verben.^s. — Many ol" your readers, 

 who, like me. have no green house, have also, 

 doubtless, been puzzled to keep young plants suf- 

 ficient for •'bedding out'' the next season, as 

 cuttings or young plants taken off in autumn are 

 veiy apt to die off. 



I succeed admirably in this way. I preserve 

 one plant in the spring and plant it in a moderate- 

 ly large pot, sinking the pot in the ground in a 

 sunny open aspect. I train the trailing shoots of 

 this plant up the twigs of a branch of a tree, from 

 one to two feet high, which I stick in the pot for 

 this purpose. About the 1st of September, I lift 

 the pot out of the ground, and gradually withhold 

 its supply of water, in order to check its growth, 

 so as to ripen the young shoots as much as possi- 

 ble. I then carry it in doors at the approach of 

 hard frost, and find no more difficulty in keeping it 

 through the winter (minding to water it as little 

 as I dare,) than any other plant. As suon as the 

 spring opens I jjlant cuttings from this mother 

 plant, which strike very freely at this season, so 

 that from one plant I have raised tliirtv or more 

 this spring, all fit for planting out in the borders 

 now. Yours, — Aa .Imateur Florist. New-York. 

 May, 1849. 



The Misletoe. — It appears strange that a 

 genus of plants haviii<z so widi' a geopraphical 

 distribution as the iVIisletoe family, is so little 

 known except to IJotauists, or that the Misletoe 

 itself is so little cultivated on ornamental trees in 

 our lawns and pleasure grounds. This curious 

 para.-iite deserves our attention for manv reasons, 

 but more especially for the historical recollections 

 it brings to mind, as well as the rich poetical and 

 legendary allusions concerning it. The Misletoe 

 when found on the oak was consecrated, and held 

 in the greatest veneration by the Druids in Britain, 

 and from time immemorial to the present, misle- 

 toe boughs have been cut and hung over the hall- 

 door on Christmas eve, in England. Yet, not- 

 withstanding all the attention paid it, it appears 

 strange that so few efforts have been made to 

 transfer it from its native wilderness to localities 

 where it is unknown, and that many of tlie most 

 experienced plant cultivators are not very suc- 

 cessful in cultivating it. The cause of so few 

 attempts to cultivate it artificially, might be 

 justly iittributed to the failures arising from the 

 modes adopted being unsuited to its parasitical 

 nature. Indeed so diflicult did it appear to 

 ancient and modern naturalists that they imagin- 

 ed the seeds required to be passed througii the 

 stomachs of the birds that feed on them, in order 

 to undergo some chemical change preparatorv to 

 germination. The Thrush fanjily are among the 

 principal agents for disseminating it in England, 

 particularly the large speci's, T. vi-civonrs. 



which takes its specific name from feeding so 

 much on the seeds; although the aiisleto6 is a 

 true parasite, deriving its nourishment from other 

 plants, it has been proved that its seed will ger- 

 minate on many kinds of substances where a suf- 

 ficient degree of moisture is maintained; for in- 

 stance, on wood, (whether living or dead,) stones, 

 glass, and even iron. M. Du Trocket has caus- 

 ed it to ffcrminate on a cannon ball. In this case 

 the embryo finds the first materials of its growth 

 in the visciil siibstanre that covers the seed. Al- 

 though the seeds germinate on those materials, 

 the plants will perish on all, except the living 

 wood, as soon as the food in the pericarp will be ex- 

 hausted from those experiments. From the nature 

 of the plant itself, as well as from the habit of the 

 birds that feed upon them, I might safely .sug- 

 gest, that the growing of ijood misletoe plants 

 from seeds, is one of the sin)|)lest things imagina- 

 ble, if properly managed. The viscous nature of 

 the seed causes it to adiierc to the beak of birds, 

 and in order to get rid of them they occasionallj 

 rub it against the tree, thereby leaving some of 

 the seeds fixed to the spot, where they stick fast 

 and vegetate; they also, when ripe, drop from the 

 plant, and in their descent sometimes come im 

 contact with other branches ; the viseou.s matter 

 causes them to adhere in like manner till they 

 germinate. From this, their natural disjiosition, 

 I can but infer, that means as similar as possible 

 are to be used to grow the seeds artificially, and 

 not by placing them in the chinks of trees, nor by 

 boring holes, nor tying them on with moss, or by 

 raising the bark in the spring and inserting the 

 seed, as is detailed in the ICncyclopedice of Plants, 

 all of which methods arc occasionallv resorted to, 

 and to which I can add but little. 



When the seeds ar'.> ripe, in the fall, take well 

 ripened plump seeds, and place them gently on 

 the smoothest and healthiest part of the tree, to 

 which they will readily adhere, and on withdraw- 

 ing the finger and thuud), the vicious matter 

 already alluded to will stick to them and permit 

 of being drawn out to tlie fineness of a thread, 

 which should be taken over the seed as often a.s 

 possible, iu various directions, allowing it to touch 

 the bark each time it crosses the seed, and thus 

 binding down the seed with its own substance, 

 which soon becomes dry, and fixes the seed finally 

 to the bark till germination takes place; this will 

 be in about two months after the seeds are put 

 on. If the seeds are left to remain for any consi- 

 derable time the mucilaginous substance loses its 

 adhesiveness, and consequently will not stick for 

 any length of time. This is the only point of 

 importance now gained, stating precisely as I 

 have done, how the seeds are to be fixed on the 

 tree, and which I know to have proved successful 

 with my respected friend David Moore, Esq., 

 Curator of the Royal Dublin Society Botanic Gar- 

 den, Ireland, with whom this system originated. 

 I have no doubt any person carefully trying the 

 above method will succeed. It is, however, to be 



