B. P. I.— 51. 



THE MISTLETOE PEST IN THE SOUTHWEST. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The name ''mistletoe" was long ago applied to the mysterious 

 parasitic European shrub to which, centuries later, Linna?us gave the 

 technical name Viscum album, by which name it is at present dis- 

 tinguished from other related species also called mistletoe. These 

 other more or less closely related species have been discovered from 

 time to time in almost all parts of the world — certainly in most of 

 the warm countries — until at the present time a large kinship circle 

 or family of mistletoes is known, embracing more than 600 species. 

 In the course of botanical explorations in the Western Hemisphere 

 numerous representatives of this family were found, and among 

 them one which so closely resembled the original mistletoe that it 

 was given the generic name Viscum. with the specific designation 

 flavescens; indeed, one early botanical explorer, Thomas Walter, 

 called specimens found in the Carolinas Viscum album, under the 

 impression that they were identical with the European plant. Later, 

 the pioneer botanist, Xuttall, suggested that the American plant 

 differed from the European one widely enough to deserve separate 

 generic distinction, and so proposed the name Phoradendron (tree 

 thief). The name then became Phoradendron flavescens. Interest- 

 ingly enough, the specimen upon which this name was based was 

 from Texas. 



In spite of the fact that there are some scores of species of mistletoe 

 in the Americas (including the West Indies), this Pltoradendron 

 flavescens enjoys the distinction of being the American mistletoe, 

 and has been accepted in this country in lieu of the genuine 

 mistletoe of Europe and invested with much of its traditional and 

 historical setting. 



DISTRIBUTION AND HARMFUL OCCURRENCE OF MISTLETOE. 



The American mistletoe is a leafy, green, parasitic shrub, com- 

 monly found growing upon various species of broad-leaved trees 

 throughout the Southern States and extending in more or less modi- 

 fied forms across Texas, southern Xew Mexico, and Arizona to 

 southern California, and thence northward in the coast region to 



166 7 



