434 
pliny's Natural histoey. 
[BookXYl. 
fuller's thistle is called the hippophssston it has a thiij, 
hollow stem, a small leaf, and a white root, the juice of which 
is considered extremely beneficial as a purgative in epilepsy. 
CHAP. 93. THEEE VAEIETIES OF MISTLETOE. THE ISTATTJEE OF 
MISTLETOE AND SIMILAE PLANTS. 
There are three varieties of the mistletoe.^^ That which 
grows upon the fir and the larch has the name of stelis in 
Eub(Ea ; and there is the hyphear^^ of Arcadia. It grows 
also upon the quercus,^^ the robur, the holm-oak, the wild 
plum, and the terebinth, but upon no other tree.®"^ It is most 
plentiful of all upon the quercus, and is then known as 
adasphear.'^ In all the trees, with the exception of the holm- 
oak and the quercus, there is a considerable difference in its 
smell and pungency, and the leaf of one kind has a disagree- 
able odour ; both varieties, however, are sticky and bitter. 
The hyphear is the best for fattening cattle with ; it begins, 
however, by purging off all defects, after which it fattens all 
such animals as have been able to withstand the purging. It 
is generally said, however, that those animals which have any 
radical malady in the intestines cannot withstand its drastic 
eff'ects. This method of treatment is generally adopted in the 
summer for a period of forty days. 
Besides the above, there is yet another differences^ in the 
mistletoe ; that which grows upon the trees which lose their 
leaves, loses its leaves as well ; while, on the other hand, that 
which grows upon evergreens always retains its leaves. In 
whatever way the seed may have been sown, it will never 
come to anything, unless it has been first swallowed^''' and 
''^ See B. xxvii. c. 66. The Calcitrapa stellata of Lamarck. Fee re- 
marks that Pliny has committed a great error, in making it a parasite of 
the Spina fuUonia. DioscoriJes only says that the two plants grow in the 
same spots. 
The Viscum Europseum of modern naturalists. 
Tlie Viscum album of Linnaeus ; but Sprengel takes it to be the 
Loranthus Europaeus. 
^- Fee questions whether this may not be the Loranthus Europceus. 
^3 The Viscum album of Linnaeus ; the oak mistletoe or real mistletoe. 
This is not the fact : it grows upon a vast multitude of other trees. 
It is no longer used for this purpose. 
The mistletoe never in any case loses its leaves, upon whatever tree 
it may grow. 
*>' This is, of course, untrue ; but the seeds, after being voided by birds, 
