224 BURMA, ITS PEOPLE AXD PRODUCTIONS. 



V. OMKNTALE, Willcl. Cliittagong. 



Rranchk'ts angular. Leaves bluut. Flowers dioecious, in pedunckil cup-shaped 

 involucres, and axillaiy. 



V. MoxorcuM, Eoxb. llartaban and Tenassorim. 



Branchlets terete. Leaves acuminate. Flowers monoecious, in sessile cup-sliaped 

 involurres and axillary. 



Y. ovALiFOLiUM, Wall. Tcuasscrim. 



Eranchlets terete. Leaves blunt. Flowers all solitary in the eup-sliapcd invo- 

 lucres, forming dense clusters in the leaf axils, or round the joints. 



** Leaf CSS shrubs. Periantli-lohes usually persistent. 



V. AETicuLATUM, Burm. All over Burma. 



Articles slightly narrowed at the joints, longitudiually ribbed, each article of 

 the lateral branchings placed at a right angle with the other and therefore decussate, 

 but twisted so as to appear in one plane. Berries minute. 



var. n artinilatum. Articles narrow, 2 lines broad. 



var. /3 diehotomum, Don. Articles broader, 3-4 lines broad. 



V. MONiLiFOKME, W.A. Martaban, from 4000 to 6000 feet, on oaks and Eurya. 



Articles all in one plane and complanate, without any other rib than the median 

 one, at their truncate joints dilated into a complanate cup, in which the flowers rest. 



The fruit of the Mistletoe, and that of other Loranthacem, yields a tenacious 

 paste known as birdlime, commonly used by fowlers to secure small birds. The 

 fowler pro\ides himself with several light bamboo rods made to tit together like 

 a fishing rod. Api)lying this substance to the terminal portion of the thin top joint, 

 he gradually elevates it into some tree, wherein the bird is sitting he desires to 

 capture. The fowler cautiously adds joint to joint from below, exciting no fear in 

 the bird sitting unconsciously in the foliage till a sudden twist brings the stick 

 daubed witli the birdlime against the wings of the bird, which the fowler rarely 

 then fails to secure. It is stated (with what truth I know not) that tigers and 

 leopards are also taken by means of ' limed ' leaves. A vast number of these are 

 spiead in some convenient spot, with a man armed with a gun or bow in ambush, 

 fjn the tiger treading on one of these leaves, it adheres at once to his paw, which, 

 cat-like, he shakes to rid himself of the encumbrance. Failing in this, he rubs 

 his paw against his face, thereby transferring the leaf to his head, and in a short 

 time several others also get attached in the same manner. The animal now rolls on 

 the ground, and ends by getting so covered with leaves as to be half blinded by them. 

 His roars of distress announce the heliiless state of the animal, whom the hunter 

 now finds small difflcidty in destroying. 



The reverence for the mistletoe grown on an oak among the Druids is well 

 known, and in the Scandinavian mythology it was the same plant which was 

 used by the envious Loki, to form the shaft which laid Balder, Odin's gallant 

 son, low on the bed of death. The genesis of the myth etymologically considered 

 is, according to A. L. Matthew, as follows: "Prof. Skeat, in his Dictionary, 

 thinks he can explain why the ' mistletoe ' in the legend should be, of all 

 created things, the slayer of tlie Sun-god. The myth represents the tragedy of 

 the solar year, the sun overwhelmed by the ' gloom ' of midwinter. In ancient 

 Scandinavian '■mist'' means 'gloom,' and ' mi del' is used for the plant 'mistletoe.' 

 So, according to Prof. Skeat, the mistletoe appwirs in the Balder myth as fatal to 

 the solar hero from the similarity of the old Teutouio words for ' gloom ' and the 

 plant ' viscum.'" — Notes and Queries, Dec. 24, 1881, p. 509. 



The story runs, that the gods, who all love Baldur, are so confident in the 

 obligation taken by all created things not to harm him, that they make his body 

 the mark for their arrows La sport ; but now the trick of Loki succeeds, and the 

 mistletoe, the one thing in nature overlooked, and not includid in the great oath, 

 is placed in the hands of the luckless Iliidr, the blind brother of Baldur, and the 



