xxxix. lorantha^ce.t: : n'scuM. 



509 



J 



Synont/mes. Misseldine, Gui, or Guy, Fr. ; Mistl, or Missel, Ger. ; Visco, or Vischio, Ital. ; Lega- 



n!0(io};a, Span. 

 Derivation. I'iscus, or viscum. is the Latin for birdlime, which is made from the berries ; and 



Mistletoe is by some supposed to be derived from mist, the German word for dung, or slimy dirt, 



and by others from misielta, the Saxon name for the plant. 



Gen. Char, Calyx a slight border in the male flowers, more evident in the 

 female. Corolla in the male flowers gamopetalous, in 4 deep, ovate, acute, 

 equal divisions; in the female flower of 4 ovate, equal, deciduous petals. 

 Anthers in the female flowers none; in the male flower 4, compressed. Ova- 

 rium ovate. Stigma sessile. Berry globular. {Don's Mill.) 



Leaves simple, opposite, rarely alternate, exstipulate, evergreen ; undi- 

 vided, entire, rigid. Flowers in fascicles or spikes, greenish. Berries white. 

 An evergreen shrub, parasitical on trees. Europe; in Britain, England. 



-^ 1. F. a'lbubi L. The white-/nVerf, or com^0K, Mistletoe. 



Identification. Lin. Sp., 1451. ; Dec. Prod., 4. p. 277. ; Don's Mill., 3. p. 403. 



Engravings. N. Du Ham., 1. t. 115. ; Eng. Bot., t. 1470. ; Baxt. Brit. PI., t. 40. ; and our fig. 925., 

 which exhibits a portion of a, male plant, marked m, and of a female plant in fruit, marked/. 



Spec. Char., i^-c. Stem much branched, forked ; with sessile intermediate 

 heads, of about 3 flowers. Branches terete. Leaves obovate-lanceolate, 

 obtuse, nerveless. (Don's Mill.) A parasitical shrub, forming a confused 

 tuft of branches with a yellowish green aspect. Europe and England, on 

 trunks and branches of trees, most frequent on i^osaceae. Height 2 ft. to 

 3ft. Flowers greenish yellow ; May. Berry white; ripe in December. 



The leaves vary considerably in different plants, as may 

 be seen in Jig. 926., which contains engravings of three 

 different specimens. The durability of the plant is very 

 great ; for, when once established on a tree, it is seldom 

 known to cease growing while the tree is in life ; but, 

 when it dies, or the branch on which it is rooted decays, 

 or becomes diseased, the death of the mistletoe imme- 

 diately follows. The trees on which the mistletoe 

 grows belong to various natural orders ; and, indeed, it 

 would be difficult to say on what dicotyledonous trees 

 it will not grow. In England, it is found on Tiliaceae, 

 j^ccracese, .Sosaceae, Cupuliferse, (Salicaceae, Oleaceae, and, we believe, also 



\ on Coniferae. It is found on the oak at Eastnor Castle (see Gard. 



I Mag., vol. xiii. p. 206.) ; and in the neighbourhood of Magdeburg we saw 

 it growing in immense quantities on Pinus sylvestris in 1814. In France, it 



I grows on trees of all the natural orders mentioned, but least frequently on the 



' oak. It does not grow on the olive in France, though it abounds on the 



almond. In Spain, it grows on tne olive ; as it does in the neighbourhood 



of Jerusalem ; and, in the latter locality, is found the variety with red fruit, 



which is perhaps a Loranthus. 



The mistletoe is propagated by the berries being, by some means or other, 



. made to adhere to the bark of a living tree. The common agency by 

 which this is effected is supposed to be that of birds; and more especially 

 of the missel thrush, which, after having satisfied itself by eating the berries, 

 vvipes oft" such of them as may adhere to the outer part of its beak, by nibbing 

 it against the branch of the tree on which it has alighted ; and some of the 

 seed.s are thus left sticking to the bark. If the bark should be smooth, and not 

 much indurated, the seeds will geni)inate, and root into it the following spring; 

 that is, supposing them to have l)een properly fecundated by the proximity 



' of a male plant to the female one which produced them. The first indication 

 , of germination is the appearance of one or more radicles, like the sucker of 

 i a house fly, but larger; as at h i, in ^g.926., which are front views, and at 

 j Ic I in the same figure, which are side views, taken from mistletoe berries, 

 ': which were stuck on the upright trunk of a cherry tree in our garden at 

 ; Bayswater, in March, 1836, and germinated there, as they appeared on the 

 20th of May of the same year. When the white, viscous, pulpy matter of the 

 mistletoe berry is removed, the kernel, or .seed, appears of a greenish colour, and 



925. V. dlbum. 



