268 



HOME AND FLO^YERS 



to the one sending the first complete list to the 

 puzzles in this issue. Three three-months' sub- 

 scriptions will be aTrarded among those sending 

 one or more solutions. A book (Mark Sea- 

 AYorth's "Voyage on the Indian Ocean") will be 

 given for the first answer to No. 26. 



CHAT. 



The "forms" in this issue are a continuation 

 of the series which appeared in December. By 

 comparing them with the answers given above 



will furnish a clue to those given in this issue. 



Aspiro (who we believe has passed the four- 

 score mark) has sent us a good supply of puz- 

 zles, and we take this opportunity to thank 

 our friend of more than twenty years for them. 

 The Terminal Elision of his given above is a 

 puzzle in which the whole word is given as all, 

 and fine being the same word with a letter 

 taken from each end. 



See the January number for the cash prizes 

 offered for best sohing record in 1903, and all 

 solve. Aunt Eunice. 



The State Flowers 



"BY MRS. G. T. DRENNAN. 



v.— Oklahoma. The Mistletoe. 



ACCOEDING to Scandinavian mythology, 

 Loki, the wicked spirit, had a deep dis- 

 L like for Balder, the beloved of the gods. 

 He gave an arrow to blind Hader, god of 

 darkness, to test. Balder was made the target 

 for the fatal missile, and its deadly power 

 proven. The gods restored their favorite to 

 life, and the mistletoe was entrusted to the 

 guardian care of the goddess of love. It was 

 decreed that, thereafter, everyone passing "un- 

 der the mistletoe" should receive a kiss, as proof 

 of the emblem of love rather than of death. 



Myth and superstition handed down the sen- 

 timent that surrounds the plant, while its own 

 inherent vitality, evergreen beauty and great 

 adaptability to wide and varying climates, 

 marks it well as a favorite in the light of the 

 yule log, side by side with the Christmas hoUy. 



The true mistletoe (Viscum album) is cos- 

 mopolitan. The European variety is something 

 more of a shrub than the American, but, in 

 the main essentials, mistletoe is the same wher- 

 ever its waxen green branches and pearly wMte 

 berries beautify the barren trees throughout 

 the winter, no matter how bleak and destructive 

 the season may be to all other vegetation. 



Botanists describe mistletoe as "tough and 

 leathery." Obviously it is tough, but the yel- 

 lowish ' green, soft-hued branches -and leaves, 

 rounded Hke squirrel's ears, with milk white 

 berries in lovely clusters, seem to belie the term. 



Oklahoma, in its new form and dignity, has 

 happily chosen the one plant in nature symbolic 

 of its attributes. Mistletoe plants itself firmly 

 upon deciduous trees and strikes its roots 

 through the bark into the wood, deriving sus- 

 tenance, but losing none of its own individu- 

 ality. On apple, oak, hickory or other trees, 

 mistletoe is the same. The nature of the tree 



has no effect upon the mistletoe. It is a plant 

 that utilizes the air and sunshine, dew and 

 snow, feeding upon each element, the picture 

 of thrift and healthful comeliness. Thus it is 

 with Oklahoma. Coming last into the fold, the 

 new commonwealth has improved every oppor- 

 tunity, utilized every natural advantage, and 

 acquired new means of wealth and sustenance. 



Bonnier, a French botanist and close student 

 of nature, has decided that the green leaves 

 of the mistletoe elaborate sap, and are of as 

 much use to the deciduous tree it grows upon 

 as the tree's own leaves. Discussions have been 

 frequent regarding the deleterious effect, or 

 otherwise, of mistletoe as a parasite, until 

 Bonnier proved its \dtalizing qualities. Through 

 its lungs, or leaves, atmospheric elements are 

 imbibed and through its active roots these are 

 conveyed to the tree upon which it grows, and 

 that, too, at a season of the year when the 

 vitality of the tree is low, particularly in the 

 high or wide-spreading branches upon which- 

 the beautiful green mistletoe is wont to plant 

 itself. It is now placed in the genus Phoradeu- 

 dron, which name, from the Greek, signifies 

 "tree-thief." True to its parasitical nature, by 

 means of its glutinous white berries, which are 

 tenacious where they faU, or are carried by the 

 feet of birds, from tree to tree, the mistletoe 

 spread at random over the orchards, groves and 

 timbered lands of Oklahoma, as in all other 

 sections. Its principal utility is as a Christ- 

 mas green. Second in demand to holly, it has 

 come to that point that the two are classed first 

 as evergreens for the holidays, and always to- 

 gether. Mistletoe outranks holly in monetary 

 value, and for that matter all other evergreens, 

 because there are substitutes of fir, balsam, 

 cedar and holly one for the other, but no sub- 

 stitute for mistletoe. 



