386 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



IIL A better known parasitical plant is the 

 evergreen shrub, called the misseltoe. What we 

 have to remark in it is a singular instance oi com- 

 pensation. No art hath yet made these plants 

 take root in the earth. Here, therefore, might 

 seem to be a mortal defect in their constitution. 

 Let us examine how this defect is made up to 

 them. The seeds are endued with an adhesive 

 quality so tenacious, that, if they be rubbed upon 

 the smooth bark of almost any tree, they will stick 

 to it. And then what follows ? Roots, 'springing 

 from these seeds, insinuate their fibres into the 

 woody substance of the tree ; and the event is, 

 that a misseltoe plant is produced next winter.* 



after a little while, applies itself to some neighbouring plant, and 

 emits very short broad suckers on the side of its stem, which is 

 placed in contact with the other plant ; by these suckers it fastens 

 itself upon the new branch, round which it twines, and as soon as 

 it IS secure in its new station its root perishes, and it ceases to 

 have any communication with the earth. This property in the 

 cuscula seems to be given it in consequence of its root not having 

 the power that such parts usually possess of branching, lengthen- 

 ing, and attracting nutriment from the earth. If the cuscuta seed 

 germinates at a distance from any living branch to which it can 

 adhere, it elevates its stem for a short time in the air and then dies. 

 If it is so placed as to be able to come in contact only with dead 

 branches, still it dies ; and it is only when it succeeds in fixing it- 

 self upon a living branch that it emits its suckers and continues to 

 exist. Once attached to the living stem of another plant, it takes 

 that for its base, and turning round once or twice, then darts forth 

 in a straight line, touches something else which it also fixes in its 

 folds, and thus travels from plant to plant, sometimes covering a 

 Tcry considerable extent of bushes. 



* Withering, Bot. Arr. vol. i. p. 203, ed. 2d. 



