2IO THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



bored and chambered out as by a teredo or the destructive 

 larva of the goat moth. 



Paley, in his Natural Theology, utihses the mistletoe as 

 one of several instances that he gives of evidence of design 

 in nature. " What we have to remark in it," he writes, 

 " is a singular instance of compensation. No art hath yet 

 made these plants take root in the earth. Here, therefore, 

 might seem to be a mortal defect in their constitution. Let 

 us examine how this defect is made up to them. The 

 seeds are endued with an adhesive quality so tenacious, 

 that if they be rubbed on the smooth bark of almost 

 any tree they will stick to it. And then what follows .'' 

 Roots springing from these seeds insinuate their fibres 

 into the woody substance of the tree ; and the event is 

 that a mistletoe plant is produced next winter. Of no 

 other plant do the roots refuse to shoot in the ground ; 

 of no other plant do the seeds possess this adhesive 

 generative quality, when applied to the bark of trees." 



The branches of the mistletoe become woody when old, 

 and are attached by a thickened base to the bough from 

 which they spring. They branch off very freely into pairs, 

 and form in the aggregate a compact rounded clump. 

 The leaves are thick, almost leathery in substance, in pairs, 

 and of a pale yellowish-green. The plant is in flower 

 in March, April, and May, the male and the female flowers 

 being on different plants. The males have four short, 

 thick petals widely spreading and triangular in form. In 

 the centre rise the four stamens. These stamlnate flowers 

 are from three to five together in a cup-shaped fleshy 

 bract. The pistillate flowers are solitary generally, though 

 sometimes two or three are together in a cup-like bract. 



