524 FLOWERS OF FIELD, HILL, AND SWAMP 



The shrub has exceedingly tough bark, which was once used 

 for thongs by Indians ; but the wood is soft, white, and brittle. 



Found in moist, rich woods in all the Atlantic States and west- 

 ward. 



iig. American Mistletoe 



Phoradendron flavescens. — Family, Mistletoe. Color, of 

 stems, yellowish green ; of berry, white. Leaves, opposite, 

 leathery, thick, i-ribbed, entire, oval or oblong, blunt, with 

 short petioles, i to 2 inches long. Time, May to July. 



Staminate fiowers, with 3-lobed calyx, and i stamen with a 

 2-celled sessile anther at the base of each lobe. Pistillate 

 flowers, a single berry-like ovary, surrounded by a 3-lobed 

 calyx. Ffuii, a fleshy berry. Flowers, in axillary clusters. 



Shrubs parasitic on trees, especially the tupelo and red maple, 

 from central New Jersey southward. The mistletoe sold so much 

 on our city streets at Christmas time is Viscicm dlbiuii, imported 

 from England. It grows on many fruit and forest trees, especially 

 the apple-tree, being not specially injurious to them, the Lom- 

 bardy poplar alone being exempt. It bears yellow flowers in 

 February or March, and ripens fruit the next autumn. Birdlime 

 is derived from the viscid pulp of the berries. Birds are the 

 propagators of this parasite, since they eat the berries and wipe 

 their bills upon the branches of trees, leaving a seed to germi- 

 nate. It was held sacred by the ancient Druids, when found, as 

 it seldom is, growing upon an oak. 



120. Small Mistletoe 



Razoumofskya pusl/la, or Arceuthdbium pusUlum, is a sing- 

 ular parasitic plant on spruce twigs in northern parts of New 

 Hampshire to northern New York, and in tiie Pocoiio region 

 of Pennsylvania. It is small, less than i inch long, consist- 

 ing of roundish, somewhat branched, brown or greenish, fleshy, 

 smooth stems, scattered over the host plant like excrescences. 

 Flowers of 2 kinds, sometimes in different plants. Staminate 

 flowers, with a 2 to 5-parted fleshy calyx with an equal nuiu- 



