244 SAGACITY AND MORALITY OF PLANTS. 



of the temperate as well as torrid zones. I had 

 gathered a Visctmi at Gongo Soco in Brazil ; and I 

 found two in the Cape Colony, one of them remark- 

 able for having no apparent leaves. LorantJms glaums 

 was the only species of that genus I met with at the 

 Cape. I did not see any of those small -flowered 

 kinds which are so ruinous to the Orange and Coffee- 

 trees in Brazil." 



This reference to the " ruin " caused by such 

 parasitic plants fully warrants us in regarding them 

 as robbers and even murderers of their own veget- 

 able kind. The Brazilian leafless species of Viscum 

 above referred to shows plainly that it has degener- 

 ated much further in this parasitical direction than 

 our English Mistletoe, which at least gets half its 

 own food by means of its leaves. 



Myzodendron is another genus of woody parasites 

 belonging to the same order as the Mistletoe, which 

 has elected to prey upon the Beeches of Terra del 

 Fuego and Antarctic America. Even the viscid 

 fruits of our favourite English parasite are not better 

 adapted to be gummed to the trees they intend to 

 germinate upon, than those of the Myzodendron are 

 for fastening upon the Beech-bark. Each seed of 

 the latter is furnished for this purpose with three 

 long, feathery, viscid bristles, by means of which 

 they cling to the smooth surface. The same arrange- 

 ment also causes them to adhere to the plumage of 

 the birds sheltering in the trees, which thus uncon- 



