80 



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 following table of the comparative frequency with 

 which trees are prone to bear Mistletoe . — The various kinds of 

 Apple, 25: Poplar, mostly black, 20 : White-thorn, 10 : Lime, 

 4 . Maple, 3 : Willow, 2 : Oak, 1 : Sycamore, 1 : Acacia, 1 . 

 (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 but seldom inhabits — it frequently grows in se- 

 veral branches at the same time, as if the tree no longer possess- 

 ed its original power of resisting the intruder. The tree shews 

 it too, and sooii 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 : — 



"Have I not reason to look pale ? 

 These two have 'ticed me to this place; 

 A barren, detested vale you see it is : 

 The trees, though Summer, yet forlorn and lean, 

 O'ercome with moss, and baleful Mistletoe." 



(Tit. Atid. Act II., 8C. 3.; 



De. Haeley has so well described the eflfects of the Mis- 

 tletoe on the supporting branch, and the struggle for life between 

 them, that I must again make a free extract from his interesting 

 paper. "The roots of the Mistletoe stand to the nourishing plant 

 in the relation of a hypertrophied (increased) medullary system 

 and one which induces an excessive flow of sap to the 

 branch, resulting at first in the local hypertrophy (thickening) of 

 its tissues, but subsequently the supply of sap, or the power of 



