MISSOURI RIVER 



MISTRAL 



a largar permanent school fnml than any other state 

 of tin- American Union. The coqis of teadn-i- 

 number 15,000. In adiliti.ni to ilie state system 

 of education there are 30 private academies, semin- 

 aries, denominational BOUMM, and universities, 

 several of which are of a high order of excellence. 



The metropolis of Missouri is St Louis (pop. 

 1900, 575,238), bne of the greatest railroad, manu- 

 facturing, and commercial centres in the country ; 

 Kansas City (103, 752), St. Joseph, Springfield, Joplin, 

 Hanniluil, Sedalia, Chillicothe, Mexico, Moberly, 

 Boonville, Nevada, Marshall, Kirksville, Carroll- 

 ton, Lexington, &c., are all thriving cities. Pop. 

 (|S-_XM Jn.M.'i; (1840) 140,455; (1860) 1,182,012; 

 ( 1880) 2, 168,380 ;( 1890) 2,679, 184 ;( 1900) 3, 106,665. 



Ilixturi/. Missouri was first explored by I)c Soto 

 in 1541-42, and in 1073 Morquette and his' followers 

 visited its eastern border. It formal part of the 

 ' I- "lisiaiia Purchase '(see LOUISIANA i.tiie northern 

 portion of whicli in 1805 was organised as the 

 ' District of Louisiana.' It was not till 1812 that 

 a part of this territory took the name of Missouri. 

 Hi 1.S-2I Missouri was admitted into the Union, 

 but the present limit- of the state were not estab- 

 lished till 1836. Its admission was preceded by a 

 long and bitter political controversy between the 

 representatives of the North and South, the former 

 resisting its entrance as a slave-state. The dis- 

 cu-sicin resulted in the famous ' Missouri Com- 

 promise,' under which compact it was agreed that 

 slavery should be for ever excluded from all that 

 tint of Louisiana north of 36 30' lat., except 

 Missouri. During the four years of the great civil 

 war the citizens ot Missouri siillered terribly. The 

 people were nearly equally divided in sentiment, 

 and both sides prepared for the conflict. The 

 state furnished 109,111 men for the Union army, 

 and about three-fourths as many for the other 

 side: Death and the destruction of property 

 everywhere prevailed. But when the war ended 

 the people commenced to build up the waste 

 places ; improvements were extended in all, direc- 

 tions, bitter feelings soon died away, and the 

 state entered upon an era of singular prosperity. 



.Missouri River. See MISSISSIPPI. 



Mist. See FOG. 



Mistassini. LAKE, in Labrador, some 300 miles 

 N. by W. of Quebec, is strictly speaking an expan- 

 sion of the river Kuj>ert, which flows into the 

 southern extremity of Hudson Bay. It is 100 miles 

 long from north-east to south-west by 12 in average 

 breadth. 



Mistletoe. This mystic plant, with its thick, 

 succulent, yellow-lmed foliage, and white, viscous 

 berries, was lonif a pu/./li; to liotanists, its peculiar 

 mode of growth having given rise to the most 

 curious fancies. Its name is most prolmbly from 

 the Anglo-Saxon mift-el, from mist, ' mist,' ' gloom ' 

 (K.T., 'dung'), and tiiii. 'twig.' The only British 

 species of this genus of parasitical shrubs is the 

 Common Mistletoe ( Vimum album), a native also 

 of the greater part of Europe (not of nonli 

 Knghuid, Scotlam!, or Ireland), growing on many 

 kinds of tree.s, particularly on the apple, and others 

 Ixiunic.-klly allied to it, as the pear, service, and 

 hawthorn ; sometimes, also, on sycamores, limes, 

 |Mmhirs, loeu*t-trees, and firs, but very rarely on 

 oks (contrary to the common Iwliof). In' the 

 Himalayas the mistletoe grows abundantly on the 

 apricot-tree, on the vine and loriinthus in Italy, on 

 spruce firs in France and Switzerland. The ever- 

 green leav f the V. album of Knglish woods, with 



their yellowish hue, make a conspicuous apimar- 

 ance in winter among the naked branches of the 

 tn-.-<. The flowers aie insignificant, and grow in 

 sm ill heads at the ends and in the divisions of the 

 branches, the male and female blossoms on separate 



plants. The benies me aliout the size of currants, 

 white, translucent, and full of a very vim-id juice, 

 which serves to attach the seeds to branches, where 

 they take root when they germinate, the radicle 

 always turning towards the branch, whether on its 



Mistletoe ( Fucum album). 



upper or under side. It may be easily made to 

 grow on suitable trees even where not native as 

 in Scotland, for example. 



The mistletoe was intimately connected with 

 many of the superstitions of the ancient Ger- 

 mans and of the British Druids. In the northern 

 mythology, Balder (q.v.) is said to have been 

 slain with a spear of mistletoe; and in llolstein 

 it is the Miirciitakcn, or 'branch of spectre-.' 

 which confers upon its possessor the power to see 

 ghosts. Among the Celts the mistletoe whicli 

 giew on the oak was in peculiar esteem for magical 

 virtues. A ccording to an old tradition the mistletoe 

 supplied the wood for the cross, which until the 

 time of the crucifixion hod licen a forest tree, hut 

 was henceforth condemned to exist only as a mere 

 parasite. Traces of the ancient regard for the 

 mistletoe still remain in some old English Christ- 

 mas customs, as kissing under the mistletoe. 

 The mysterious surrounding of the mistletoe in- 

 vested it with a widespread importance in old 

 folklore remedies, the Druids having styled it 

 'all-heal,' as being an antidote for all diseases, 

 ('ulpepper speaks of it as -good lor the grief of the 

 sinew, itch, sores, and toothache, the biting of mad 

 dogs and venomous leasts;' while Sir Thomas 

 Browne alludes to its virtues in the cure of epilepsy. 

 In Sweden a finger ring mode of the mistletoe is an 

 antidote against sickness, and in France amulets 

 made of its wood were formerly much worn (see 

 H. Friend, Floicer-lore). Loratithns /-.'//i-d/wr/M, a 

 shrub very similar to the mistletoe, but with 

 flowers in racemes, is plentiful in some parts of 

 the south of Europe, and very frequently grows 

 on oaks. L. ottoratiis, a Nepalese species, has 

 very fragrant flowers. The American mistletoe, 

 of which there are some half-dozen species, is 

 similar in general appearance and habit to the 

 European, yet differs in so many ]M>ints as to 

 jusiiiy its iM-ing called by a different name, I'hora- 

 dendron. The commonest species is 1'. Jlavcsccnt, 

 found from New .Icisey to Mexico. 



Mistral (also Mixtrntiit and Maestral), a north- 

 we-t wind whicli at certain seasons of the year 



{irevails on the south coast of Fiance. Its approach 

 s heralded by a sudden change of the temperature, 

 from the most genial warmth to piercing cold ; the 

 air is felt to In; purer, and more easily inhaled, the 

 azure of the sky is iindimmed bv cloud, and the 

 stars shine by night with extraordinary and spark- 

 ling bright ness. The mistral then conic* in sudden 

 giisis, struggling with the local aerial currents, but 

 its fast-increasing violence soon overcomes all 

 <H>|Kisition. In a few hours it has dried up the soil, 

 dispersed the vapours of the atmosphere, and raised 



