XXXIX. LORANTHA CEE: VI/SCUM, 509 
Synonymes. Misseldine, Gui, or Guy, Fr.; Mist), or Missel, Ger.; Visco, or Vischio, Ital.; Lega- 
modoga, Span. 
Derivation. Viscus, or viscum, is the Latin for birdlime, which is made from the berries ; and 
Mistletoe is by some supposed to be derived from mist, the German word for dung, or slimy dirt, 
and by others from mrste/ta, the Saxon name for the plant. 
Gen. Char, Calyx a slight border in the male flowers, more evident in the 
female. Corolla in the male flowers gamopetalous, in 4 deep, ovate, acute, 
equal divisions; in the female flower of 4 ovate, equal, deciduous petals. 
Anthers in the female flowers none; in the male flower 4, compressed. Ova- 
rium ovate. Stigma sessile. Berry globular. (Don’s Mill.) 
Leaves simple, opposite, rarely alternate, exstipulate, evergreen; undi- 
vided, entire, rigid. Flowers in fascicles or spikes, greenish. Berriés white. 
—An evergreen shrub, parasitical on trees. Europe; in Britain, England. 
£1. V. a‘taum ZL. The white-fruited, or common, Mistletoe. 
Identification. Liu. Sp., 1451.; Dec. Prod., 4. p. 277. ; Don's Mill., 3. p. 403. 
Engravings. N. Du Ham., 1. t. 1f5.; Eng. Bot., t. 1470. ; Baxt. Brit. Pl., t. 40.; and our Sig. 925., 
which exhibits a portion of a male plant, marked m, and of a female plant in fruit, marked f. 
Spec. Char., §&c. Stem much branched, forked; with sessile intermediate 
heads, of about 5 flowers. Branches terete. Leaves obovate-lanceolate, 
obtuse, nerveless. (Don’s Afill.) A parasitical shrub, forming a confused 
tuft of branches with a yellowish green aspect. Europe and England, on 
trunks and branches of trees, most frequent on Rosacew. Height 2 ft. to 
3 ft. Flowers greenish yellow ; May. Berry white; ripe in December. 
The leaves vary considerably in different plants, as may 
be seen in fig. 926., which contains engravings of three 
different specimens, The durability of the plant is very 
great ; for, when once established on a tree, it is seldom 
known to cease growing while the tree is in life; but, 
when it dies, or the branch on which it is rooted decays, 
or becomes diseased, the death of the mistletoe imme- 
diately follows. The trees on which the mistletoe 
grows belong to various natural orders ; and, indeed, it 
would be difficult to say on what dicotyledonous trees 
it will not grow. In England, it. is found on Tilidcez, 
Aceracez, Rosacee, Cupuliferze, Salicaceee, Oleacee, and, we believe, also 
on Conffere. It is found on the oak at Eastnor Castle (see Gard. 
Mag., vol. xiii, p. 206.) ; and in the neighbourhood of Magdeburg we saw 
it growing in immense quantities on Pinus sylvéstris in 1814. In France, it 
grows on trees of all the natural orders mentioned, but least frequently on the 
oak. It does not grow on the olive in France, though it abounds on the 
almond. In Spain, it grows on the olive; as it does in the neighbourhood 
of Jerusalem ; and, in the latter locality, is found the variety with red fruit, 
which is perhaps a Loranthus. 
The mistletoe is propagated by the berries being, by some means or other, 
made to adhere to the bark of a living tree. The common agency by 
which this is effected is supposed to be that of birds; and more especially 
of the missel thrush, which, after having satisfied itself by eating the berries, 
wipes off such of them as may adhere to the outer part of its beak, by rubbing 
it against the branch of the tree on which it has alighted; and some of the 
seeds are thus left sticking to the bark. Ifthe bark should be smooth, and not 
much indurated; the seeds will germinate, and root into it the following spring ; 
that is, supposing them to have been properly fecundated by the proximity 
of a male plant to the female one which produced them. The first indication 
of germination is the appearance of one or more radicles, like the sucker of 
a house fly, but larger; as at # i, in fig. 926., which are front views, and at 
kl 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 
Bayswater, in March, 1836, and germinated there, as they appeared on the 
20th of May of the same year. When the white, viscous, pulpy matter of the 
mistletoe berry is removed, the kernel, or seed, appears of a greenish colour, and 
é 
925. V. album. 
