MOUNTAIN TREES 



upward in a twinkling, and then pro- 

 ceeds to cut through the thin and tender 

 bases of the scales, and each stroke tells, 

 laying bare at once a couple of seeds. 

 Thus he strips it as easily as if scales 

 were chaff, and so rapidly, twirling it as 

 he advances, that you cannot tell how 

 he does it till you drive him off and in- 

 spect his finished work." 



A yellowish, brittle-stemmed mistle- 

 toe (Arceuthobium occidentale EN- 

 GELM) lives on the Coulter pine and 

 White Fir. I shall never forget my first 

 experience with it. I plucked a spray in 

 order to sketch it, and as I did so, a jet of 

 gluey fluid hit me on the eye. Then 

 another spirt came on the cheek. For a 

 moment I was puzzled to know what it 

 meant. Then I discovered that the 

 shiny, white berries were discharging 

 their seeds at me not with evil inten- 

 tions, however; it was the mistletoe's 

 method of seed dispersal. The viscid 

 fluid within the berry and surrounding 

 the seed is under such intense internal 



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