APETAL^ 227 



branch to germinate in due course. The sticky layer 

 also serves, since some is left attached to the seed as 

 a rule, to make it adhere to the branch. 



The Mistletoe, though hemiparasitic, is partly 

 green. It has been suggested that the plant takes 

 up the ascending sap only, whereas in the non-green 

 parasites the descending sap is utilised. The Mistle- 

 toe adheres by the peg-like suckers to the wood of 

 the host-plant and the nutritive material is tapped as 

 it rises. In addition the suckers ramify and 

 penetrate the bast so that descending sap is also 

 drawn upon. 



The plant being an evergreen the Mistletoe can also 

 obtain its own carbohydrates during the winter, when 

 the host-plant is itself inactive. This, if the host- 

 plant is benefited, is a case of the mutual relation 

 between the host-plant and the parasite, or symbiosis. 



All-heal, Masslinn, Mistletoe are the only names 

 cited for this plant. 



Birdlime, as noted, is made from the berries. The 

 dye made from the ashes of the Mistletoe in the 

 fourteenth century was used for making the hair a 

 yellow colour. Mistletoe, Henslow says, has been 

 given to cattle as fodder in winter. 



A good deal of folklore has centred around the 

 Mistletoe. Sir J . Colbach says that the Mistletoe was 

 employed " for further and more noble purposes than 

 barely to feed thrushes, or to be hung up super- 

 stitiously to drive away evil spirits." Being used as a 

 means of warding off evil spirits, it was one of the 



