324 



The middle group, or those only moderately liable trom their structure to 

 bear Mistletoe are thus given : — 



The 



Hawthorn 



Apple and Crab 



Almond 



Medlar 



Lime 



Olive 



Ash 



Poplar 



Willow 



Alder 



This group contains all the chief 

 Mistletoe-bearing trees, and mixed with 

 them at least three kinds — the Alder, the 

 Willow, and the Ash — upon which it but 

 rarely occurs spontaneously. 



The group least liable to become affected by the parasite, is framed as 

 follows : — 



The Pear 



Elm and Birch 



Fir 



Larch 



Lilac 



Oak 



Beach 



Spanish Chesnut 



Hazel 



Horse Chesnut 



The Mistletoe is found in this County 

 on three of these trees — and on the Hazel, 

 at least three instances are known, incon- 

 spicuous as it is on this tree. 



It is very clear then, that there must be some predisposition of a kind which 

 this list does not represent and which has yet to be discovered. 



Mr. Buckmann, late Professor at the College of Cirencester, gives the follow- 

 ing table of the comparative frequency with which trees are prone to bear Mistle- 

 toe : — The various kinds of Apple, 25 : Poplar, mostly black, 20 : White-thorn, 

 10 : Lime, 4 : Maple, 3 : Wlilow, 2 : Oak, i : Sycamore, i : Acacia, i : (N. & 

 Q. Vol. iii, p. 226.) In Herefordshire, the proportion for the Apple tree must 

 certainly be raised considerably, and the Acacia also must be put higher on the 

 list. 



It is a remarkable fact that, when the Mistletoe has once established itself on 

 any kind of tree — and the rule holds equally good for those it seldom inhabits — 

 it frequently grows in several branches at the same time, as if the tree no longer 

 possessed its original power of resisting the intruder. The tree shews it too, and 

 soon puts on a desolate woe-begone look, with fading leaves, and dying branches. 

 It is thought that the Limes in this condition in Datchet Mead — a place often 

 mentioned in the " Merry Wives of Windsor," — gave Shakespeare the illustration 

 embodied in these lines : — 



