313 



mere excrescence from the tree on which it grew. Virgil represents them in the 

 lines : 



" Quale solet sylvis brumali frigore viscum 

 Fronde virere nova quod non sua seminat arbor 

 Et croceo foetu teretes circumdere truncos." 



(£neid lib. vi. I. 205). 



and still later it has been supposed that the glutinous berries stick to the beaks of 

 the birds that eat them, and as they clean their beaks on the neighbouring trees 

 their seeds are sown— a view, it is sufficient to say, which supposes that the birds 

 dont't know how to eat the berries they like so much. 



There is no longer any question that the natural mode in which the Mistletoe 

 is propagated from one tree to another is that so graphically represented by the 

 ancient observers ; and it is a fact that many modern experimentalists succeed 

 so much better in growing the seeds that the birds have thus dropped, that they 

 seek for them, in preference to using seed fresh from the plant itself. It is equally 

 beyond all doubt, however, that fresh seeds will grow without undergoing any 

 such process. 



The artificial propagation of the Mistletoe from the natural seeds, on trees 

 adapted to receive the parasite, is by no means difficult in this county with ordinary 

 care. Fasten the seeds of the berries by the glutinous matter surrounding them 

 to the boughs of a crab or an apple tree, or a black poplar, and if they escape 

 destruction from small birds. Sparrows, Bullfinches, or especially Tom-tits, some 

 of them will be sure to germinate and take root. Many persons, however, even 

 here, have found such great difficulty in growing the seeds that the following 

 precise rules for doing so are added. Raise a considerable piece of the bark by 

 a sloping incision, nearly an inch long, on the under side of the branch to be 

 experimented upon : the cut should only be made through the bark itself, and 

 not into the wood of the branch ; or, more simply still, a broad notch may be cut in 

 the bark, then having chosen some fine well ripened berries, open the skin of one 

 of them, remove the seeds with great care and place them in the base of the notch 

 thus made, with the embryo directed towards the trunk of the tree, and restore 

 the raised bark over it. In this way it is best secured from the sun and winds 

 that might dry it up ; from the rains that might wash it off ; and ft-om the birds 

 also. The branch experimented upon should not be less than five feet from the 

 ground. 



The seeds of the Mistletoe require to be handled with great delicacy, a light 

 crush will destroy their vitality by injuring the embryo, and the pulp surrounding 

 them is so very glutinous that it is difficult to place them right and keep them 

 there without pressing on the seeds ; many experiments have doubtless failed from 

 want of care in this respect. Some persons have used with advantage a covermg 

 of moss and bass to protect them still further from injury and to keep them 

 damp. An old tree in a damp situation will render the success of the experiment 

 still more probable. 



