a couple of months or so they germinate, and, if the conditions 

 are favourable, ultimately develope into established plants. 

 Usually it takes about four or five years before a mistletoe plant 

 comes into flower. The flowering period, in the south, is from 

 February to April. The berries ripen in early winter. The 

 mistletoe is frequently cultivated in gardens for its interest and 

 associations. It; may readily be established by crushing the 

 berries and placing them on the bark of apple trees. It is also 

 obtainable from nurserymen growing on small trees. The two 

 sexes should be obtained on the same or separate host plants. 



Geographical Distribution. 



The mistletoe is not common in this immediate neighbour- 

 hood in a wild state. In the floras of Hants and Dorset it is 

 described as rare. In the southern and western parts of England 

 it is fairly common except in Cornwall. It is found in scattered 

 localities in the northern parts of England, and it is absent,, 

 altogether, from Scotland and Ireland. The mistletoe is met 

 with in greatest abundance on apple trees in the cider-making 

 areas in Worcestershire and Herefordshire and in oversea Brit- 

 tany, whence large quantities, on the approach of Christmas, are 

 sent to London and other large towns. The supply does not 

 seem to be in any way diminishing. 



The mistletoe has a wide distribution on the Continent, rang- 

 ing from Sweden to the Mediterranean, and it is found also in 

 the temperate parts of Asia. The Rev. C. O. S. Hatton informs 

 me that mistletoe is found wild on poplar trees in Milton Glen, 

 about half a mile from New Milton Station on the road to^ 

 Wootton. It is growing in gardens and orchards at Beckley 

 and Hinton Vicarage, and there are eight clumps, one over 

 twenty years old and about lOijr feet in circumference, established' 

 on apple trees and on a red hawthorn, in the garden of Dr. J. A. 

 Hosker at Boscombe. The Rev. E. F. Linton, the author of the 

 " Flora of Bournemouth," informs me that at Edmonsham, near 

 Salisbury, mistletoe is plentiful, even abundant ; also in the 

 adjoining parishes of Cranborne and St. Giles. In the county of 

 Dorset mistletoe is reported in orchards at Mosterton, at Brad- 

 ford Abbas, Pamphill, near Wimborne, and commonly met with 

 in Cranborne Chase and Crichel Park. 



Host Plants. 



In this country the mistletoe is most plentiful on apple trees, 

 both cultivated and uncultivated varieties, and next on poplars, 

 except in the case of the Lombardy poplar, possibly on account 

 of its upright branches. It is fairly common on hawthorn, syca- 

 more, maple, Norway maple, lime, horse chestnut, mountain ash, 

 and whitebeam. It is less common on elm, hornbeam, willow, 

 Scots pine, Corsican pine, Lebanon cedar, larch, red horse chest- 

 nut, and sweet buckeye. 



