THE MISTLETOE. 161 



of the glutinous matter, the adhesive power of which is 

 thereby impaired, and the seed slips down the branch, or 

 hangs suspended in mid air by a slender thread, which when 

 dry becomes brittle and is easily snapped. Spring frosts, 

 too, have the same effect : the morning sun, then 

 attaining considerable power, speedily thaws the rime 

 which covers everything exposed to the atmosphere, and 

 bathes it in abundant humidity. It is therefore well not 

 to sow till May or even June ; then you will soon observe 

 the seed to put forth one, two, or three (never more than 

 three) green fang-like shoots or radicles, which late in 

 the season may be noticed to be already extruded from 

 the seed within the as yet unbroken husk. These forth- 

 with direct themselves towards the branch, on which 

 the seed is fixed, and in the course of the ensuing 

 twelve months succeed in penetrating through the bark 

 into it. Then the shoot (or shoots, as the case may be,) 

 appears to detach itself from or thrust off the shrivelled 

 and empty skin of the seed, and now becoming the 

 stem of the first year puts forth a pair of green leaves. 

 In some cases, however, the leaves do not make their ap- 

 pearance for two or even more seasons This, perhaps, 

 arises either from the top of the shoot having been acci- 

 dentally rubbed off, or from its having been eaten away 

 by insects, but all the time the root is growing and 

 expanding under the bark, which visibly swells, and when 

 at length the plant emerges it breaks out into several 

 shoots, each with its pair of young leaves. Flowers do 

 not appear until the fourth year at the earliest ; generally 

 not until the fifth or sixth year of growth. 



There are one or two peculiarities of the Mistletoe which 

 ought to be noticed here. The first is, that the radicle always 

 M 



