vi The Web of Life 101 



northern peoples underlies the festival of Christmas, have 

 made the mistleto a favourite with men ; and, whether it be 

 the sacred plant of the Druids or no, it has become the 

 centre of many beautiful myths and customs. 



A word for the life-history of the plant. In autumn and 

 winter the white seeds are eaten by birds, especially by 

 thrushes, and passing undigested from the food-canal are 

 voided on the branches, to the sides of which they eventu- 

 ally adhere. A tree in the botanic garden at Bonn is 

 thus specially noticeable ; its trunk crowded with seedling 

 mistletos just below a mass of branches whose sheltering 

 attractiveness is well marked by the remains of yearly nests. 

 From the seed a little root grows out, bends towards the 

 branch, sticks to it, and expands into a clinging disc. 

 From this there grows a modified rootlet which pierces the 

 bark and reaches the wood. There is no further growth 

 that year. But next spring the growth of new wood encloses 

 the rootlet, which at the same time increases in length. 

 In the second year the rootlet gives off lateral branches 

 which grow longitudinally between the wood and the outer 

 rind, and give off other rootlets. In proportion to the 

 number of these the mistleto plant flourishes in stem and 

 leaves. From the spreading roots fresh stems may arise, 

 so that from one seed a score of mistleto bunches may 

 arise. The rootlets penetrate into the wood and absorb 

 what that contains namely, as we shall afterwards see, 

 water and salts, while the mistleto stem spreads forth its 

 leaves, and behaves in regard to the light and air as any 

 independent green plant. It is in fact a natural graft. 



Resembling our mistleto in most respects are other 

 species of the same genus Viscum, the American mistleto 

 often called by a different generic name, the more shrubby 

 Loranthus europceus common on oaks and other trees in 

 many parts of the south of Europe. There are about 



