158 THE MISTLETOE. 



on which it has fastened, and spreading to a considerable 

 distance under the bark. The stem, which is dichotomous, 

 is much forked into numerous round green branches, each 

 year's shoot being readily distinguished by means of a 

 slight swelling at its base, so that it is not difficult to 

 ascertain the age of the plant. The branches are brittle, 

 easily breaking at the point of junction of each year's 

 growth. The leaves are in pairs, leathery, flat and smooth, 

 scarcely ribbed, obovate or oblong lanceolate, from one 

 to two inches long, and from each pair spring the young 

 shoots, two in number, each with its own terminal pair 

 of young leaves : the old leaves are shed in September 

 after the perfect developement of the new ones. The 

 flower buds are formed in the autumn, just before the 

 old leaves fall off, on the young shoots of the same season : 

 they occur both at the top, between the terminal pair of 

 leaves, and also (especially in the case of the female plants) 

 at the base, at the point of contact with the shoot of 

 the previous year : they expand early in the following 

 spring, in mild seasons as early as March ; they are in 

 triplets, the normal number of these triplets at the base 

 of the shoot being four, while at top, in the axis of the 

 leaves, there is never more than one. The flowers are 

 insignificant in appearance, of a somewhat yellower shade 

 of green than the rest of the plant, the male flower being 

 the larger of the two, with fleshier and more pointed petals : 

 the calyx is obsolete : the petals are four in number, and 

 ovate in shape, and in the case of the barren flower each 

 bears about its middle a sessile anther ; the stigma is 

 single, and also sessile. The fruit is round, in colour 

 milk-white (hence the specific name), pellucid, and contains 

 but a single heart-shaped seed enveloped in glutinous 

 matter (hence the generic name viscus) : it seldom ripens 

 in this country till December, and remains on the plant 



