61 



J\ Selection from the Cectures ana 

 Papers aioen before the Societp, 



Report of a Lecture entitled 



THE MISTLETOE. 



Its Life History and Associations with Primitive Religion, Folk Lore 

 and Superstitions. 



(Delivered at Trinity Hall, December loth, 1917.) 



By SIR DANIEL MORRIS, k.c.m.g., j.p., d.sc, d.c.l., ll.d., f.l.s. 



Chairman: Field Marshall Lord Grenfell, G.C.B., F.S.A. 



After a few introductory remarks it was stated that Viscum, 

 the Latin name for the mistletoe, was used by Virgil and Pliny, 

 tooth of whom wrote interestingly about it 2,000 years ago. The 

 specific name album is in allusion to the white berries. The 

 common name mistletoe is said to be derived from mist, the 

 German name for slime, in reference to the seeds being dropped 

 after being devoured by birds. An alternative derivation is from 

 mistelta, the old Saxon name for the plant. To distinguish the 

 common mistletoe from other plants, with a similar habit, it is 

 spoken of as the white mistletoe. The mistletoe is evergreen 

 irrespective of the fact whether it is attached to a deciduous or 

 an evergreen tree. 



The general appearance of the plant is familiar to everyone. 



The small green flowers appear in the forks of the branches. 

 The pollen-bearing and the pistil-bearing flowers appear on dif- 

 ferent plants, that is, the sexes are distinct. It is hardly neces- 

 sary to say that only the female plants produce berries. The 

 latter are white and semi-transparent, of the size of a small pea. 

 They contain a single seed covered with very glutinous pulp 

 with one or more green embryos. 



Dispersal of Mistletoe. 



There is no doubt that the mistletoe owes its dispersal in 

 the wild state to the agency of birds. The missel thrush, 'known 

 in Hampshire as the Storm Cock, because it sings particularly 

 loud and long before rain, is, probably, chiefly concerned. This 

 bird devours the berries in winter with great avidity. The 

 digested or partly digested seeds are dropped, after passing 

 through the bird, on branches of trees on which it alights. The 

 seeds, embedded in sticky slime, readily adhere to the branches 

 and while still soft, or under the influence of rain, they are Gradu- 

 ally carried to the sheltered or underside of the branch, where in 



