MISTLETOE 211 



the petals being very minute, and the stigma sessile on the 

 summit of the one-celled ovary. To these pistillate flowers, 

 sedent in the forks of the stems, succeed in October the 

 white and semi-transparent globular berries, each containing 

 a single seed immersed in very glutinous pulp. Sheep 

 in time of dearth find the foliage very acceptable,^ while 

 the berries afford welcome food to field-fares, wood- 

 pigeons, and many other birds. If not lunched off by 

 a hungry bird, or otherwise interfered with, the berries 

 remain on the plant all through the winter ; and as the 

 foliage of the mistletoe is always green, while the leaves 

 of its host fall away with the arrival of Autumn, it is 

 in the winter-time that the mistletoe is most conspicuous 

 and attractive. 



A curiously similar plant is the cross-leaved mistletoe, 

 the viscum cruciatum of the botanist, a plant that may be 

 found freely enough around the shores of the Mediterranean 

 Sea. It is parasitic ; and we have seen it springing from the 

 trees, its hosts, in vigorous spreading masses. The leaves 

 have the same yellowish colour and leathery texture as 

 those of the mistletoe we figure, and are of similar shape 

 and size, and it is only on examination that we detect 

 points of difference, the most notable feature being that the 

 berries are of a somewhat dull crimson-red colour. It is 

 not, we trust, wholly insular prejudice when we express our 

 preference for berries of the colour that our home-grown 

 mistletoe affords us. 



Even in the days of such venerable practitioners as 



' If frost do continue, sheep hardly that fare 

 Craue mistle and ivie for them for to spare. 



TUSSER. 



