1024 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART III, 



through the body of a bird ; and, at his suggestion, Mr. Doody, an apothecary 

 of London, inserted a seed of the mistletoe into the bark of a white poplar 

 tree, which grew in his garden, with complete success. This, Professor 

 Martin observes, has been since done by many persons, both by rubbing the 

 berries on the smooth bark of various trees, and by inserting them in a cleft, 

 or in a small hole bored on purpose, which was the mode adopted by Doody. 

 Mr, Baxter of the Oxford Botanic Garden, in the spring of 1833, rubbed 

 nine mistletoe seeds on the smooth bark of an apple tree, all of which germi- 

 nated : two produced only one radicle each, six produced two radicles each, 

 and one produced three ; from which it follows, that two radicles are more 

 common than one in the seeds of this plant. There are as many embryos as 

 radicles. 



The celebrated Du Hamel, arguing that the seeds of the mistletoe, like the 

 seeds of other plants, would germinate anywhere, provided they had a suitable 

 degree of humidity, made them sprout not only on the barks of different kinds 

 of living trees, but on dead branches, on bricks, tiles, stones, the ground, &c. 

 But, though they germinated in such situations, they did not live any time, 

 except on the bark of living 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. 

 Flowering 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 Jig. 

 772., which are front 

 views, and at k I in the 

 same figure, which are 

 side views, taken from mis- 

 tletoe berries, which were 

 stuck on the upright trunk 

 of a cherry tree in our 

 garden at Bayswater, in 

 March, 1836, and germi- 

 nated there, as they ap- 

 peared on the 20th of 

 May of the same year. 

 When the white, viscous, 

 pulpy matter of the mis- 

 tletoe berry is removed, ! wl 

 the kernel, or seed, ap- 

 pears of a greenish colour, 

 and flat; sometimes oval, 

 at other times triangular, 

 and at other times of various forms. In fig. 772., a is the male blossom 

 magnified ; b, the female blossom magnified ; d, a berry cut through, trans- 

 versely ; c, a seed divided vertically, showing the two embryos ; g f the 

 embryo magnified ; //, the two embryos, with the two radicles germinating ; 

 ?, a single radicle ; k, 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, '■'>, or more, appear. It is singular, that, while the radicle of almost all other 

 plants descends, this is not the case with the mistletoe; the young root of 

 which at first rises lip, and then bends over till it reaches the body of the 

 m distance to which the seed has been attached, as at k and I, Jig. 712. Having 



