154 ECONOMIC BOTANY OF ALABAMA 



tahoochee some distance down into Florida. It also acts like a 

 weed soinetimes. growing in gullies and moderately damp and rich 

 woods where it could hardly have been originally. 



LORANTHACEAE. Mistletoe Family 



About 25 genera and over 8U() species, shrubs or herbs, para- 

 sitic on the branches of trees and shrubs, mostly in tropical 

 America. 



PHORADENDRON, Nuttall. (American) Mistletoes. 

 Phoradendron flavescens ( Pursh ) Xutt. Mistletoe. 



(Fig. 44) 



A small evergreen shrul). parasitic on various hardwood trees. 

 In any one neighborhood it seems to be partial to one genus of 

 trees, and it may possibly be divisible into several species, which 

 are to all ai)pearances much alike but cannot be made to grow on 

 trees too different from that to which they have been accustomed 

 (analogous to some bacteria which look exactly alike under the 

 microscope but react differently to various culture media). 



The mistletoe is used chiefly for Christmas decorations, and 

 large quantities have been shipped from Evergreen. Huntsville, 

 and various other places for that purjiose. The leaves and branches 

 have some medicinal properties, but are not officinal. It is some- 

 times thought to be injurious to shade-trees,* but that has probably 

 been exaggerated. As it has its own green leaves to make starch, 

 etc., with, and grows very slowly, it ought not to be any more of a 

 burden to a tree than one of the tree's own branches of the same 

 size. And if it killed the tree quickly it would be committing sui- 

 cide itself. 



Its observed distribution will be given first by regions and 

 then by hosts, for the benefit of any one who may hereafter desire 

 to attack the problem of subdividing the species. 



By regions it is distributed about as follows : 



lA. Limestone County. 



IB. Rather common, on Hicoria oi'ota, Quercus Phellos, Uhniis Ameri- 

 cana, Platanus, Gleditsia, Acer saccharinum, Nyssa sylvafica, and Fraxinus. 

 IC. Colbert County, on Nyssa sylvafica. 



*See W. L. Bray, The Mistletoe pest in the Southwest. U. S. Dept. 

 Agric. Bull. 166. 1910. 



