8 
BOTANICAL INDEX 
their waxen whiteness, are dim and shrunken, forgetful of their pearly sheen. 
And yet, this withered memento has a peculiar charm. It is as a key note awaken- 
ed on a harp of a thousand strings; and mythical lore, and wierd ceremonies, and 
customs of ancient days, and Christmas times of long ago when the yule-log blazed 
in the wide fire-place, and kisses under the mistletoe bough, all these and more be- 
side, blend together in a chant, the refrain of which is ever, — “Oh ! the mistletoe 
bough.” 
The mistletoe ( viscurn album ) is a parasitic, evergreen plant. The radicle is pecul- 
iar in always turning towards the object to which the plant is attached. The roots 
insinuate their fibres into the trees and the plant lives entirely on their sap, as the 
stems and leaves are incapable of absorbing moisture. All attempts to raise the 
plant from the earth have failed. The name is said to be composed of two Greek 
words, a thief and tree , because the plant steals its food from the tree it grows upon. 
It is a jointed, dichotomous shrub, with sessile, oblong, entire, and opposite 
leaves, and small, yellowish-green flowers. In the winter it is covered with small, 
globose white berries, containing each a single heart-shaped seed. The bush is pend- 
ent, and grows from two to rive feet in diameter. There are about thirty genera and 
four hundred species. It is stated that in England this parasite grows on about 
twenty kinds of trees. In ancient Greece the mistletoe was found most frequently 
on fir trees. At the present day it grows abundantly in Normandy, usually on ap- 
ple trees, and forms quite an article of commerce. It is sent chiefly to London, be- 
ing harvested a few days before Christmas, for the English people still venerate the 
mistletoe bough at Christmas time. 
The American Mistletoe {viscum flavenscens ) grows from Florida to Mississippi 
and northward, and from New Jersey to Illinois and southward; found most fre- 
quently on elms and hickories. It blossoms in April and May. The plant is yellow- 
ish-green, the branches opposite or whorled, the leaves fleshy, obovate, and the ber- 
ries white, waxy and glutinous. 
The mistletoe grows not after the manner of most plants. It lives a high and 
airy life, as though it were “not of the earth, earthy.” It establishes a Hanging 
Garden of its own, and defies the skill and interference of man in his efforts to cul- 
tivate it. Surely it is a dainty, dainty plant, sipping only the wine of life from the 
trees that foster it. No wonder it keeps its leaves all winter and garnishes itself 
all over with glistening pearls. Yet, the peculiarity of its habits and appearance 
is not that which alone creates the interest in the “mistletoe bough.” It is the ro- 
mance, the superstitions, the customs, the legends of the past; and we, who love a 
vein of the romantic wherever found, are glad that science, while it describes this 
plant in technical terms, cannot take away the ideal and legendary. 
Scandinavian mythology gives the sad story of the death of Baldur the Good by 
means of the sacred mistletoe which grew on the eastern side of Valhalla. By 
fraud the wicked Loki caused the death of Baldur; a story which Longfellow has 
made familiar to the casual reader in his translation of Tegner’s Drapa. 
The mistletoe is celebrated because of its consecration to religious rites and cere- 
monies by the ancient Celtic nations of Europe. The Druids, who were the priests 
and magistrates of the people, attached much sacredness to the mistletoe when it 
was found growing upon the oak, which was a divine tree, according to the Druidic 
religion. As it was rarely found upon the oak, the discovery of it was the occasion 
of much rejoicing and religious ceremony. At the time of the winter solstice, the 
Druids went into the forests, and at the foot of an oak tree bearing the mistletoe, 
built an altar and performed their religious rites and ceremonies. Pliny says: 
“They call it by a word in their language which means ‘Heal All,’ and having 
made solemn preparations for feasting and sacrifice under the tree, they drive thith- 
er two milk-white bulls, whose horns are then for the first time bound. The priest 
then, robed in white, cuts the mistletoe from the tree with a golden sickle. It is 
caught in a white mantle, after which they slay their victims, at the same time pray- 
ing that God would render his gifts prosperous to those to whom he had given it.” 
The mistletoe was esteemed as possessing wonderful medicinal virtues, especially 
when found growing upon the oak, and it was used as a medicine long after the 
Druids went the way of all the earth. 
Shakespere, in Titus Andronicus, speaks of the “baleful mistletoe,” not as that 
which works an evil charm to mankind, but as that which had o’ercome the trees, 
as had the moss : 
“A barren, detested vale you see it is; 
The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean, 
O’ercome with moss and baleful mistletoe; 
Here never shines the sun ; here nothing breeds 
Unless the nightly owl and fatal raven.” 
