210 MISTLETOES AND LORANTHUSES. 



titious buds are produced regularly by the cortical roots to which the absorbed 

 nutriment is first of all conveyed from the sinkers. These buds occur on the side 

 of the rootlets nearest the exterior of the bark, and later they burst through the 

 rind, and develop into new Mistletoe-plants. 



These outgrowths are analogous to the adventitious shoots produced from the 

 subterranean roots of the Aspen, and this comparison is rendered all the more 

 appropriate by the fact that the removal of the tuft of Mistletoe encourages the 

 sprouting of adventitious root-buds just as in the case of the Aspen, the growth of 

 shoots from the roots is promoted by the felling of the trees to which those roots 

 belong. If a large Mistletoe-bush, growing in solitude on a Black Poplar, is removed 

 from the tree with the intention of freeing the latter from its parasite, the hopes 

 entertained by the operator are disappointed; for, an outgrowth of shoots from the 

 cortical roots ensues at a number of different spots, and in a few years' time the 

 poplar in question is the prey of a dozen Mistletoe-bushes instead of one. Inasmuch 

 as these bushes, produced from offshoots, are able, under favourable conditions, to 

 send out fresh roots, and these again may develop shoots, a good host of the kind 

 will at last have all its boughs from top to bottom overgrown by Mistletoes. In 

 the Prater at Vienna there are poplars beset by at least thirty large Mistletoe- 

 shrubs, and double that number of small ones, and if one catches sight of such a tree 

 at some distance in winter-time when the branches have lost their leaves, one takes 

 it to be a Mistletoe-tree, for almost the entire system of branches is mantled in a 

 continuous tangle of evergreen bushes of Mistletoe, which are in a state of parasitism 

 upon it. 



Sinkers of the Mistletoe, 10 cm. in length, and inclosed in forty annual rings, 

 have been found in the wood of the Silver Fir, whence we may conclude that the 

 Mistletoe may live for forty years. A greater age could scarcely be attained 

 by one and the same bush of the parasite. If the Mistletoe dies, the rootlets and 

 haustoria survive for a time, but at length moulder and fall to pieces, whilst the 

 wood in which they were imbedded remains unaltered. The affected parts of the 

 wood exhibit in that case numerous perforations, and look just like the wood of a 

 target which has been fired at and struck by shot or small bullets (see fig. 48 ^). 



A small plant belonging to the Loranthaceae and named Juniper- Mistletoe (Vis- 

 cum Oxycedri or Arceuthobium Oxycedri) occurs on the red-berried juniper bushes 

 (Juniperus Oxycedrus) of the Mediterranean flora. It is very different from 

 the common European Mistletoe, as is obvious at first sight, its foliage-leaves being 

 reduced to little scales, which gives a characteristic jointed appearance to the rami- 

 fications. A whole series of leafless forms allied to this species is found to exist in 

 India, Japan, Java, Bourbon, Mexico, Brazil, and at the Cape. They are nearly all 

 small bushes which project from the boughs of host-plants and sometimes clothe 

 the latter so thickly that the boughs in question serving as nutrient substratum are 

 entirely enshrouded by the parasitic growth. The Juniper-Mistletoe is only from 

 3 cm. to 5 cm. tall, and the branchlets are not woody, but soft and herbaceous; 

 the fruits are blue oblong berries, almost destitute of succulence. The latter are 



