294 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



with the general statement that poUination " is effected entirely 

 by insects . . . cliiefly . . . flies," and the hitter was unable 

 to see any insects visiting the flowers, but " supposed ".it was done 

 by short-tongued bees, and " thinks " early-flying i\ndrenoe maybe 

 the instruments. Kirchner is a little more definite and mentions 

 the honey-bee — as also does Bonnier — and the various species of 

 flies named above. With regard to the honey-bee, it is obviously 

 not the ordinary pollinator of those plants of Viscum album which 

 flower in the early part of February, for only on exceptionally 

 warm days is it on the wing at all in that month, and then not for 

 working purposes. The Andrenoc mentioned by Loew hatch 

 about the middle or even the latter end of March, and this appears 

 to be the case with Siyilogastcr as well, so that these insects are 

 not likely to have anything to do with mistletoe flowering in 

 February. The Pollenia family hibernate, and individuals may 

 come out on any really mild day in the winter, but they would not 

 be about in sufficient numbers in the very early spring to fertilize 

 the immense quantities of mistletoe one sees flowering in the 

 Herefordshire orchards. Although I watclied patiently and care- 

 fully over some very early flowering specimens of Viscum this 

 spring (1916) for some considerable time, I could never detect any 

 visiting insect, — the weather was much too cold, — yet at the date 

 of writing (June 30th) the berries on the plants I watched are well 

 set, and about a quarter of their future size. Some further inves- 

 tigation into the method by which the plant is fertilized seems 

 to be necessary, particularly with regard to the earliest flowering 

 plants. 



III. Peopagation. 



I was able to watch in February last, in the orchard previously 

 mentioned, the manner in wdiich the seeds of the mistletoe are 

 distributed by the missel-thrush. There were great numbers of 

 the birds present, and they were eating the ripe berries as fast as 

 they could swallow them. The birds appeared to retain them but 

 a very short time, as I w^as able to observe one bird continuously. 

 The digested, or partly digested seeds, pass out first, follow^ed 

 immediately by the skins of the berries. The whole falls in a pile 

 upon a bough, the skins forming a protecting cover for the seeds 

 beneath. The gluten contained in the berry is only partly digested 

 by the thrush, and a thick coating remains round each seed. This 

 gluten has been changed by digestion, and is much more sticky 

 than when in its natural state. After the rain has washed away 

 the protecting layer of skins, it w^ashes the seeds off the bough in 

 a curious way. The seeds appear as if threaded on fine white 

 thread, at about three-quarters of an inch apart, and these threads 

 of seeds hang from the tree in lengths of from 12 to 18 inches. 

 The wind blows them about, and the free ends very quickly 

 catch up on to some other part of the tree, the gluten on the seeds 

 holding them in place. I saw festoons of these seeds everywhere 

 — there had been a fairly heavy rain the night before — but the 

 ■wind blew these dangling threads in all directions, and it was 



