HOLLY AND MISTLETOE. 87 



of its uniisual haLitat. To be sure, there is 

 another kind of mistletoe in southern Europe, 

 closely similar to our own, which does actually 

 prefer the oak as its permanent dwelling-place; 

 but our British plant confines itself almost 

 entirely to the mossy branches of the common 

 apple-tree. In the orchards of Herefordshire and 

 the adjoining counties it covers many of the old- 

 est boughs, and London is largely supplied with 

 its Christmas emblems from these places. But 

 the home supply is not, in itself, equal to the 

 enormous demand — for what English liouse is 

 without its sprig of mistletoe in the festive 

 season? — and foreign countries have to be put 

 under contribution, crate-loads of the parasite 

 being annually imported from Normandy, Pic- 

 ardy, Holland, and Belgium. The imports are 

 reckoned by the ton in quantity, and more than 

 two thousand crates are needed to supply the 

 osculatory necessities of London alone in a single 

 season. 



Mistletoe is one of the most remarkable vege- 

 table parasites in the whole range of plant-life. 

 The berries are sown and dispersed b}' the agency 

 of birds, which eat them greedily, and in so doing 

 get some of the sticky glutinous seeds gummed to 

 their bills, their feet, and their feathers. Flying 

 about from tree to tree, they rub off the seeds they 

 have thus unconsciously transported, and leave 



