BALDER THE BEAUTIFUL 



and it lives happily and contentedly on the salts and 

 moisture accumulated by the mosses and other plants. Its 

 leaves are fleshy and succulent, rather like those of a desert 

 plant, so that it can store up water against a season of 

 drought. 



These plants which grow in this way on other plants, do 

 not, as a rule, greatly injure them, but many have not 

 stopped at this stage. Take, for instance, the Gooseberry 

 growing in the fork of an old tree. Some bird has been 

 eating gooseberries and dropped the seed there. The roots 

 of the gooseberry will grow down into the rotten part of the 

 trunk. Earth and leaf-mould will accumulate there, and it 

 is quite probable that the whole inside of the tree will 

 decay away. The roots of the gooseberry will, if only in- 

 directly, help in this decay. 



But it is far otherwise with another set of plants — the 

 Mistletoe and its allies. There is plenty of romance con- 

 nected with the mistletoe. Dr. M. T. Masters says as 

 follows : " The origin of the modern custom connected with 

 mistletoe is not very clear. Like many other customs, its 

 original significance is only guessed at. If known, perhaps, 

 the innocent merriment now associated with the plant would 

 be exchanged for a feeling of stern disapproval, and the 

 mistletoe would be banished from our homes. In such a 

 case ignorance is bliss.''"' 



It will be remembered that all the gods of Iceland were 

 once gathered together so that a general oath might be 

 exacted of every plant "that grew upon the earth," that 

 they would do no harm to Balder the Beautiful. The 

 Mistletoe did not take the oath, because it does not grow 

 upon the earth but upon a tree. Then the enemy 

 fashioned an arrow out of the mistletoe, and killed Balder. 



332 



