0« budding and grafting the Mistletoe. 



209 



trees, but on dead branches, on bricks, tiles, stones, the ground, 

 &c. But, though they germinated in such situations, they did 

 not Hve any time, except on the bark of Kving trees. M. Du 

 Trochet made seeds of the mistletoe germinate on the two sides 

 of the frame of a window, and in both cases the radicles 

 directed themselves towards the interior of the room, as if in 

 quest of darkness. (See Richard's Elements of Botany ; and 

 Baxter's Brit. Flo'wering Plants, art. Viscum.) The first indi- 

 cation of germination is the appearance of one or more radicles, 

 like the sucker of a house-fly, but larger; as at h i in^^''. 80., 

 which are front 

 views, and ^t h I in 

 the same figure, 

 which are side 

 views, taken from 

 mistletoe berries, 

 which were stuck 

 on the upright trunk 

 of a cherry tree in 

 our garden at Bays- 

 water, m March, 

 1836, and germi- 

 nated there, as they 

 appeared on the 

 20th of May of the 

 same year. When 

 the white, viscous, 

 pulpy matter of the 

 mistletoe berry is re- 

 moved, the kernel, 

 or seed, appears of 

 a greenish colour, and flat ; sometimes oval, at other times tri- 

 angular, and at other times of various forms. In Jig. 80., a is 

 the male blossom magnified ; h, the female blossom magnified ; 

 f/, a berry cut through, transversely; ^, a seed divided vertically, 

 showing the two embryos ; g^ the embryo magnified ; 7z, the two 

 embryos, with the two radicles germinating; ?', a single radicle ; 

 /f, a side view, or section, of the two radicles ; and /, a side 

 view, or section, of the single radicle. 



" It is remarked by Du Hamel, that, when the form of the seed 

 is oval, generally one radicle only is protruded ; but, when it is 

 triangular or irregular, 2, 3, or more, appear. It is singular, that, 

 while the radicle of almost all other plants descends, this is not 

 the case with the misdetoe; the young root of which at first 

 rises up, and then bends over till it reaches the body of the 

 substance to which the seed has been attached, as at k and /, 

 in^^-. 80. Having reached that substance, the point of the radicle 



Vol. XIII.— No. 86. p 



