33 



the wood, and these had penetrated to different depths, some to the ring of the 

 previous year, others half-way between that and the ring of older growth, while 

 some had even entered the first year's wood, and were approaching the pith. 

 In one section he had made the pith had actually been reached. There was 

 another fact mentioned in the able paper which had been read which the members 

 of the AVoolhope Club could confirm on the spot. If any would ascend the 

 Mistletoe Oak near at hand, they would find that the plant of mistletoe upon it 

 had spread downwards beneath the bark of the oak, and by its pressure had 

 elevated it so much as to split it, and also that from it new plants of the present 

 year's growth are appearing (applause). 



Dr. Bull said the Club were very much obliged to Mr. Blight for the 

 excellent paper he had given them. It showed much work — careful observations 

 made in the field, and interesting experiments at home ; and had really advanced 

 our knowledge of Mistletoe growth. When he himself took up the subject of 

 Mistletoe for tbe Club some few years since, he could get but little information 

 about it. The best account of it by far, was that written by Mr. Lees in the 

 Botanical Looker Out, and he thought it was still the best and most interesting 

 account. If any gentleman present did not know this bt ok, he begged strongly 

 to recommend it to them as one of the most useful and entertaining books on 

 British wildfiowers — a book that any one fond of botany could not put down 

 without reading it throughout. It had been published some years now, and 

 when he heard Mr. Lees asking why Mr. Blight had not carried his observations 

 further, he could not help wondering why he had not done so himself (laughter). 

 They had just had the pleasure of electing Mr. Blight a member of the Club, 

 and if he continued his observations he had no doubt but that he would meet 

 Mr. Lee's desire for further information. The last elaborate paper on Mistletoe 

 physiology was written by Dr. John Harley and read before the Linn.ean Society, 

 and in a letter he (Dr. Bull) had reoeived from Dr. Harley since this time, he 

 laments that he had neither time nor opportunity to inquire particularly into 

 this point amongst others— whether the Mistletoe roots had the power to pene- 

 trate the hard wood of the tree? Hitherto it has been thought that the Mistletoe 

 root was arrested by the hard wood, and that it only becomes imbedded in the 

 wood by the successive layers as they were found annually surrounding the root. 

 Here he thought Mr. Blight had done good service in almost proving that the 

 Mistletoe roots have the power of penetrating the layers of wood already formed. 

 Mr. Blight had shown Mistletoe sections, and those brought by Mr. Smith to-day 

 supported them well in showing that the soft cellular root enters the hard wood 

 itself and sometimes penetrates evan to the pith. He (Dr. Bull) was convinced 

 that it had this power of penetration, and as in all the sections the roots grew 

 larger from the point to tbe base, there must be considerable compression or 

 absorption of the hard wood to make way for the soft tissue of the Mistletoe. 

 The point was very interesting physiologically, for it seemed to bear out the 

 view that in vegetable as in animal life, the tissue with the lowest vitality 

 had to give way to that which possessed a higher degree of it — as the bones of 



