VOL. XXXIV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. IJQ 



furnished him with two or three, which he relates, because they somewhat 

 further explain the nature of this plant's growing. 



1. One of his little plants, sown in April 1724, which was fixed at both 

 ends in its arch-like form, had in Sept. 1724, the middle part broken off; the 

 two ends keeping still fast to the tree. Which shows how firmly the two ends 

 adhere, while it is in that state; and they both continued green some time, and 

 then withered away. 



2. That one seed, which grew on a pear-tree, in 171|^, was the next spring 

 i7^l, loosened from the tree at one end, as the others were : yet this seedling 

 sprout never put out any leaves at all ; but continued in the same state, neither 

 greater nor less, near d years, till it was broken off by chance in July 17'25. 

 This seems to me a very strange thing: for a seedling plant of any kind is but, 

 as it were, an embryo, till it has put forth leaves. 



3. The most thriving pair of plants, of the year I7H» being about 3 inches 

 in length, were on May 21, 1722, struck ofl^, by the falling of a rake-handle 

 against them. Tiiey took away with them, only the outmost thin skin of the 

 tree ; and there were not any signs of deeper rooting. But as Mr. B. looked 

 now and then on the place where the misselto had grown, he thought he ob- 

 served the bark to swell up a little ; and on the 12th of March 172^, he per- 

 ceived 3 or 4 little buds putting forth, and another bud was put out by the 18th 

 of March. They all grew on to have leaves that summer ; and now February 

 1724-, they are a cluster of boughs, of 4 or 5 joints in height, and bore berries 

 this winter ; whereas two others, on the same tree, and which were also sown 

 at the same time, in 17Hj and are 6 or 7 joints in height, have not yet born 

 any berries. 



The thriving of these plants so well again, after they were broken ofF, made 

 him reflect on the Druids' way of cutting misselto from the oak, with a golden 

 instrument ; a metal not apt to take a good edge, and possibly the bluntness of 

 the instrument might be a means to preserve a future growth, of the same 

 plant ; which doubtless they, as well as we, find to be very rarely on the oak. 

 Mr. B. might suggest some reasons for this scarcity, from the nature of that 

 bark, and might observe many mistakes, into which both modern and ancient 

 writers run, when they mention this plant. But he adds only this one observa- 

 tion ; that there is almost every year, on most misselto-bushes, a visible proof 

 that the kernel has a vegetative life in it : for when the berries hang on till 

 May or June, the seed will make its little shoot in the berry, as the kernels of 

 lemons, and it may be seen coming out at the eye of the berry. 



