240 SAGACITY AND MORALITY OF PLANTS. 



regarded its occurrence on it in the light of a 

 great religious event. No other cause can be 

 assigned for the rarity with which 

 the Mistletoe takes up its quarters 

 on the Oak than that suggested by 

 Dr. Carpenter forty years ago, that 

 the latter is rich in tannin. Some 

 small portion of this substance must 

 be contained in the sap, and the 

 Fig. 84. Mistletoe may not like it, and prefer 



1. Vertical section of the , 



fruit of Mistletoe, lodgings whcrc there is less. But, 



2. Vertical section of the - /^ 1 • , 1 • 1 



seed. ciny way, the Oak is the gainer, and 



3. (From Baxter) show- ^^^^^ ^^ ^^ slightcd ! 



ing tlie way m o 



which the radicles Possibly this class of Parasites 



extend themselves. ' 



began originally by being Epiphytes 

 — the name given by botanists to all those plants 

 which, instead of growing upon the ground, attach 

 themselves to the back of trees, after the manner 

 of the fruticose Lichens seen on the ancient Apple- 

 trees of our orchards. The Epiphytes are rare in 

 our latitudes, unless represented by Mosses and 

 Lichens, and a few Ferns like the Polypody, which 

 find occasional shelter and provision in the rotting 

 boles of some aged trees. But in tropical countries 

 Epiphytes are a common feature both on forest and 

 on scant vegetation, and the orders to which the 

 Orchids and Pine-apples belong seem to have taken 

 to this artful habit of life more than any other kind 

 of plants, although members of numerous other 



