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vessels, but instead, and in the place where they usually occur, 
are found some ringed tubes (fig. 6), together noth some dotted 
or reticulated cells and fibres. On the outside of these bundles of 
woody matter, which form the longitudinal tissue of the plant, 
are found others, similar in number but smaller, and composed 
exclusively of fibres of the inner layer of the bark. 
To trace these appearances a careful microscopic examination 
is required, and some of the more delicate observations cannot 
be conducted without first submitting the portion of stem to a 
saturation of spirits of wine. 
The manner in which this curious plant establishes itself in 
the tissue of other plants is very remarkable, and has been 
well described by De Candolle in his excellent “ Physiologie 
Vegetale.” Old botanists believed that birds, feeding upon the 
berries, and getting their beaks surrounded with the viscous 
matter they contain, rubbed their beaks against the branches 
to get rid of it, and thus introduced the seeds to their resting- 
place. Paley, in his “ Natural Theology,” gives at great length 
his views of the subject, and says : — 
Of no other plant can it be said that the roots refuse to shoot in the 
ground, and no other is known to possess this adhesive generative quality 
when rubbed on the branches of trees. 
Careful botanists who have examined the process of growth 
in these plants from their earliest stage, tell us that from what- 
ever cause the seeds are brought in contact with the wood of 
the tree on which they establish themselves, they adhere by 
means of the glutinous substance in which they have been em- 
bedded, and which hardens into a sort of transparent glue. 
Then two or three days after application the tiny radicle may 
be seen pushing’ towards the support, whether it be on the 
under or upper surface ; reaching this point it becomes enlarged 
and flattened. It now has the appearance of a sucker, and 
by degrees penetrates the bark. This operation requires some 
time, and is not completed until the plumule begins to be 
developed. By the time the young plant has a pair or two 
of leaves, the attachment will be found tolerably firm. 
Mr. Grifiths, who has written a paper on the Orders of 
Lorantlius and Vlscum in the Transactions of the Linnaean 
Society, tells us that on cutting away a portion of the branch 
on which the mistletoe had fixed itself and laying bare the 
included portion of the parasite, he found that the union 
had taken place entirely between the ligneous systems of both ; 
the fibres of the sucker-like root of the parasite expanding on 
the wood of the support in the form of a web foot. There 
was, however, no interchange of structure between them, 
neither at this period was there any intermixture of ligneous 
