BRITISH PHANEROGAMIC PARASITIC PLANTS. 164 
the necessary food that has been taken up from the soil by the host. 
Old Apple trees have occasionally been found infested with 
Mistletoe from foot to crown. 
The Mistletoe does not derive all its food constituents from its 
host ; having green leaves, it is capable of utilising the carbon dioxide 
of the air to produce some of its carbo-hydrates, 
It enfeebles the branches of the trees and is also indirectly in- 
jurious by allowing insects and fungi to enter the cankered places 
often formed round its stems. To eradicate it, the female plants 
should be cut out of the branches while still young. It is then easy to 
remove them completely, but when the roots are strongly developed, 
only cutting off the branch affected will be of any use, as cutting the 
stem off only stimulates it to send out adventitious buds which become 
fresh plants. No insect larva, as far as I can find out, is known to 
feed on the Mistletoe. 
It is not an uncommon plant, particularly in the South and 
West of England, rare in the North, not native in Scotland or Ire- 
land. It is particularly fond of the Apple tree, but is very rare on 
the Oak. A Dr. Bull of Hereford made a careful list in 1864 of all 
authenticated instances in England, but he was only able to get seven 
records—two of these in Herefordshire, one near Plymouth, one 
Basingstoke, one in Surrey, and two near Chepstow. 
In looking up all available records I find that the Mistletoe is 
reported to have been found growing on forty species of trees and 
shrubs, including both British and Foreign cultivated ones; on some 
of the latter it has no doubt been grafted. It has also been made 
to grow parasitically on itself, although this does not occur in nature, 
No British plant is the subject of so much legend, mystery, and vener- 
ation as the Mistletoe; the legends in connection with it are far tco 
numerous to mention in this paper. The veneration of it by the 
Druids (particularly when found growing on the oak), is well known; 
it was supposed to cure all disease. was an antidote against al] 
