268 AUTUMN AND WINTER 



associations, mistletoe sometimes grows on the Scots fir ; 

 but in England its effect is seldom, if ever, impaired in this 

 way, and the evergreen does not grow on an evergreen. It is 

 commonest on apple-trees, but also grows frequently on limes, 

 hawthorns, black poplars and maples, and much less often on 

 several other trees. The likeliest place to find mistletoe 

 bushes on an unusual host such as an ash or willow, is in the 

 hedges of large orchards where the apple-trees are full of 

 them. On oaks it is exceedingly rare, which is probably 

 the reason why it was venerated in this situation by the 

 Druids. Sometimes the seeds from the ripe berries may fall 

 on lower boughs of the same tree, and give rise to other 

 plants ; but birds are the usual means of distribution, 

 especially the missel or mistletoe thrush, which is fond of 

 the soft gelatinous berries, and begins to haunt orchards for 

 nesting in the early spring when they grow fully ripe. At 

 Christmas they are only just ripening, as can often be seen 

 by their tinge of green. The plant generally shoots from the 

 under side of a bough, as the seed tends to get washed down 

 to this position, and is better protected. Mistletoe plants 

 are true parasites ; they do not merely lodge on the trees 

 and drink the air, like many exotic orchids, nor simply 

 cling for support like ivy, but pierce the bark with their roots, 

 and subsist on the juices of the tree. They thus tend to 

 weaken it, and to lessen the crop in the case of apple-trees, 

 but there is seldom a very heavy growth of mistletoe on an 

 apple-tree until it has reached an age when its productivity 

 begins to decrease in any case. 



Nowadays the common associations of the yew are very 

 different from those of the holly and mistletoe ; they are 

 sepulchral rather than festive, pointing not to immortality but 

 to decay. But in spite of the sombreness of its boughs it is 

 doubtful whether this was the original significance of the 



