1278 VISCUM. [CLASS XXII. ORDER Ul. 
from mischief, and the rain is prevented from injuring it by this simple 
but admirable contrivance; for if the berry in the bosom of the leaf 
remained upwards, moisture would be lodged about it, and speedily 
decay it, but by its being turned with the keel upwards all danger 
from this is removed. The green branches tied together, and 
formed into brooms, were formerly much used by butchers for 
cleaning their blocks, whence the common English name of Butcher’s- 
broom. The.young tender shoots have been used by poor people as 
a vegetable, like those of asparagus. Its evergreen branches, with its 
scarlet berries, form a beautiful winter decoration, together with the 
dried stalks and capsules of the Peony and Ivis. It is a useful ever- 
green shrub to plant under the drip of trees, and in sandy or stony ~ 
places, and is very ornamental when in fruit. 
ORDER III. 
TETRAN'DRIA. 4 STAMENS. 
GENUS IV. VIS'CUM.—Linn. WMisseltoe. 
Nat. Ord. Loran'tHER. Juss. 
Gen. Cuan. Calyx obsolete. Barren flowers with four ovate fleshy 
petals, united at the base, each bearing about its middle a sessile 
anther. Fertile flowers with four erect small ovate petals. - 
Stigma sessile. Fruit an inferior one-seeded berry.—Name, 
viscus, clammy; on account of the sticky nature of the berries; 
‘Sec, of the Greeks. 
1. V. alb'um, Linn. (Fig. 1542.) Common Misseltoe. Stems dicho- 
tomous, with numerous round branches; leaves obovate lanceolate, 
obtuse; flowers about five, sub-globose in the axis of the upper 
leaves. 
English Botany, t. 1470.—English Flora, vol. iv. p 237.—Hooker, 
British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 375.—Lindley, Synopsis, p. 133. 
Root woody, thick, deeply embedded in the tree upon which it is 
growing. Stem very much divided into numerous short round 
yellowish green branches, in a forked manner. Leaves in pairs, hard, 
leathery, thick, from one to two inches long, flat, smooth, scarcely 
ribbed, obovate, or oblong lanceolate, obtuse. Flowers in the axis of — 
the leaves, in a globose head, about five or six, crowded, yellowish. 
Berries globose, white, pellucid, glutinous, with a sweetish taste, one 
cell, single seeded. 
Habitat—Parasitic upon the apple tree, hawthorn, &. ; common 
in the South of England ; Meikleour, Scotland. 
Shrub ; flowering in May. 
