MABCH. 



31 



well as an edging to the other plants, and were also useful to cut and mix 

 with flowers in the flower-glasses through the summer, and to fill vases, &c, 

 with Everlasting Flowers through the winter. 



Teddesley Gardens, Stafford. J. Tap-LIN. 



ON THE MISTLETOE. 



The Mistletoe is familiar to everybody at Christinas in the midland, 

 southern, and eastern counties of England ; but it is little known in the north 

 or in Scotland. Some think that this parasite is named from the mistle 

 thrush, instead of that early songster being named so from feeding on its 

 viscid berries in winter. The name Mistletoe is derived from the Anglo-Saxon 

 Mistelan, birdlime, from Mistel, and tan, a twig. Formerly birdlime was made 

 of its glutinous berries. My design, however, is neither to discuss the etymo- 

 logy of the name, nor the veneration of the Druids for the Mistletoe cut from 

 the Oak, but rather to offer a few observations on its mode of growth, with a 

 view to assist in the propagation of this singular production where it is not 

 found growing wild. 



The Mistletoe bears male and female flowers on separate plants, which 

 accounts for some very large bushes of it never bearing berries. It is very 

 abundant in some places upon the Thorn, Apple, Oak, Ash, and black Italian 

 Poplar ; but it is not found in other parts of the same locality. This is the 

 case here : therefore I am indebted to a friend for much of the following : — He 

 says, " I find as much of Mistletoe on the smooth as on the rough bark, both 

 upon the upper and under sides of the branches ; and some of the stems of 

 Mistletoe are much larger than the branches on which it grows, while two or 

 three old plants spring out of the rough bark on the main steins of the old 

 Thorn bushes. Likewise some remarkably fine bushes of Mistletoe on the 

 black Italian Poplar, growing out of the body of the tree about 40 feet high 

 from the ground." He adds, " If I find a Poplar branch bearing Mistletoe, 

 I will cut it off by way of a cutting for you ; but I am afraid the difficulty will 

 be to get handsome standards of Mistletoe, because it seems necessary that the 

 mother plants must be kept growing beyond it ; for I observe where a branch 

 is broken off by accident the parasite withers and dies away." This fact 

 shows the true character of a parasite. This one, however, may be said to be 

 harmless, except where it too much abounds in orchards ; and the way of its 

 extension differs from that of other parasites, whose seeds germinate in the 

 ground before they fix themselves for the season upon the roots or steins of 

 plants. The Broom-rape on the roots of Coltsfoot are examples of those fixing 

 on roots, and Dodder of those attaching themselves to stems, as it adheres to 

 the stems of Clover. This leads me to the chief point — the inquiry, How is 

 Mistletoe propagated ? This is commonly believed to be effected by thrushes 

 rubbing their bills, after eating the berries, on the branches of trees to clean off 

 the viscid juice, by which some of the seeds adhere to the smooth bark, or are 

 deposited in the chinks of the rough bark with their excrements. Miller 

 notices both ways, but objects to the latter, because he considers that the seeds 

 would not grow after passing through the stomachs of the birds ; and also 

 because their deposits could not lie on the under sides of the branches where 

 Mistletoe is generally found. From these observations it seems that he did 

 not understand the real habits of the parasite, nor the fact that seeds of 



