The Strange Story of the Flowers 



than resume habits of industry so long renounced 

 as to be at last forgotten. 



Like the lowly dodder the mistletoe is a climber 

 that has discovered large opportunities of theft 

 in ascending the stem of a supporting plant. 

 On this continent the mistletoe scales a wide 

 variety of trees and shrubs, preferring poplars 

 and apple trees, where these are to be had. Its 

 extremely slender stem, its meagre leaves, its 

 small flowers, greenish and leathery, arc all 

 eloquent as to the loss of strength and beauty 

 inevitable to a parasite. Rising as this singular 

 plant does out of the branches of another with 

 a distinct life all its own, it is no other than a 

 natural graft, and it is very probable that from 

 the hint it so unmistakably gives the first gar- 

 deners were not slow to adopt grafts artificial — 

 among the resources which have most enriched 

 and diversified both flowers and fruits. The 

 dodders and mistletoes rob juices from the stem 

 and branches of their unfortunate hosts; more 

 numerous still are the unbidden guests that 

 fasten themselves upon the roots of their prey. 

 The broom-rape, a comparatively recent im- 

 migrant from Europe, lays hold of the roots of 

 thyme in preference to other place of entertain- 

 ment; the Yellow Rattle, the Lottsewort, and 

 many more attach themselves to the roots of 

 grasses — frequently with a serious curtailment of 

 crop. 



Yet in this very department of hers Nature 

 has for ages hidden away what has been disclosed 

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