454 
MR. H. D. GELDART ON THE MISTLETOE. 
recorded in England on eleven more trees, viz., Buckthorn, Red 
Swamp Maple, Horse Chestnut, Filbert, Catalpa, English Elm, 
Gooseberry, Plane, Yew, Cedar, and Larch. To this long list 
I can add one more, from my own observation, having seen it 
on Weeping Willow at Caversham, in Oxfordshire, thus making 
a total of forty-four hosts on which Mistletoe has been seen in 
England. 
But there are twelve trees on which it has never been observed 
spontaneously in England, viz., Beech, Birch, Bird Cherry, Wild 
Cherry, Blackthorn, Hornbeam, Elder, Holly, Dogwood, Box, 
Lombardy Poplar, and Sweet Chestnut. 
Mistletoe is the only truly parasitic flowering plant of Great 
Britain, that is to say, the only flowering plant which requires 
no assistance from the earth, but developes upon the body of its 
host in the spot where it is to spend its life, and is solely dependent 
on the juices it absorbs. Dodder, for instance, which is truly 
parasitic in its flowering stage, for the most part germinates in 
the earth, and severs its connection with its own root when it 
has got a firm hold of its victim and can “steal its sustenance” 
from it. Unlike most other plants, with which the usual rule is 
that one seed has only one embryo, the Mistletoe has often more 
than one embryo, sometimes as many as three embryos in a single 
seed, and each embryo forms a separate plant. 
Mr. Blight describes the growth of the Mistletoe. “ After the 
berries have been devoured by birds, the seeds, with most of their 
viscous matter absorbed by digestion, are ejected in masses of from 
eight to twelve. Such masses generally fall on the upper surface 
of the branch, from which the rain mechanically carries the seeds 
to the under surface — the viscous matter still about them being 
sufficient to make them still adhere firmly to the bark.” After the 
viscous matter has disappeared, the processes (i.e., radicles) push 
their way through the dead coverings ; they advance parallel to 
the bark until they attain the length of a quarter to three-eighths 
of an inch the club-shaped end of the process bends downward 
and becomes a disc, from the centre of which a radicle descends and 
penetrates the bark ; on reaching the cambial layer it begins to 
swell into a spherical form, and nutriment is absorbed by not only 
the advancing root but also by the whole surface of the disc. 
“ Once established on any given tree, the Mistletoe plant soon 
