V I s 
points, and narrow at their bale. The flowers come 
out from the wings of the ftalk in fhort fpikes ; they 
have four yellow leaves, which are by fome called pe- 
tals, and others make them the empalement. The 
female flowers are fucceeded by round white berries, 
which are almoft pellucid, about the fize of large white 
Currants, full of a tough vilcid juice, in the middle 
of which lies one heart-lhaped flat feed. 
It grows upon the white Thorn, the Apple, the Crab, 
the Hazel, the Afh, and Maple, but is rarely found 
upon the Oak, though the Mifleto of the lait has 
been always accounted the belt of all ; which opini- 
on, as Mr. Ray well obferves, may be owing to the 
fuperftitious honour which the ancient Druids of this 
ifland gave to this Mifleto, to whom nothing was 
more facred. 
This plant is always produced from feed, and is not 
to be cultivated in the earth, as mo ft other plants, 
but will always grow upon trees ; from whence the 
ancients accounted it a luper-plant, rnoft of whom 
thought it was an excrefcence on the tree, without 
the feed being previously lodged there, which opinion 
is now generally confuted from a repeated number of 
experiments. 
The manner of its being propagated is this, viz. The 
Mifleto Thrulh, which feeds upon the berries of this 
plant in winter, when it is ripe, doth often carry the 
feeds from tree to tree •, for the vifcous part of the 
berry, which immediately furrounds the feed, doth 
fometimes faften it to the outward part of the bird’s 
beak, which, to get difengaged of, he ftrikes his 
beak againft the branches of a neighbouring tree, and 
thereby leaves the feed fticking by this vifcous mat- 
ter to the bark, which, if it lights upon a Smooth 
part of the tree, will faften itfelf thereto, and the fol- 
lowing winter will put out and grow; and in the fame 
manner it may be propagated by art, for if the ber- 
ries, when full ripe, are rubbed upon the fmooth 
part of the bark of a tree, they will adhere clofely 
thereto, and, if not deftroyed, will produce plants 
the following winter. 
The trees which this plant doth moft readily take 
upon, are the Apple, the Afh, the white Thorn, and 
other lmooth-rind trees before-mentioned; but I have 
feveral times tried it upon the Oak without fuccefs, 
for the bark of that tree is of too clofe a texture to 
admit the feeds fticking thereto, which is alfo the 
reafon it is fo rarely found upon that tree ; and not- 
withftanding the great encomiums which have been 
given to the Mifleto of the Oak for its medicinal vir- 
tues, yet I cannot help thinking that it is equally 
good from whatever tree it be taken, nor is it pofii- 
ble to find this plant growing in any quantity upon 
the Oak ; fo that thofe perfons who pretend to fur- 
ififh the town with it for phyfical ufe, do but impofe 
upon the world, for it is fo rarely met with, that 
whenever a branch of an Oak-tree hath any of thefe 
plants growing upon it, it is cut off, and preferved 
by the curious in their collections of natural curio- 
fines, and of thefe there are but few to be feen in 
England. 
As to what fome perfons have aflerted of the manner 
how it is propagated, from tree to tree, by the Mif- 
leto thrufhes, which eat the berries, and void the 
feed in their dung upon the branches of trees, where- 
by the feeds are ftuck thereon, and take root into the 
bark, and produce frefh plants, I can by no means 
agree to, fmce, if it were only this way propagated, 
it would always be found on the upper part or the 
Tides of fuch branches, upon which the dung can only 
be fuppofed to lodge ; whereas it is generally found 
upon the under fide of the branches, where it is al- 
moft impofiible for thefe birds to caft their dung ; be- 
fides, I believe the ftomachs of thefe birds are too 
powerful digefters to fuffer any feeds to pafs fo entire 
through the inteftines as to afterwards grow; but I 
fhall leave this to fuch as have leifure to make obfer- 
vations in thofe places where this plant abounds, and 
fhall add only a fhort account of the method ufed to 
V I T 
make birdlime, which may not be improper to inferc 
in this place for the fatisfadlion of the curious. 
The Italians make their birdlime of the berries of 
Mifleto heated and mixed with oil, as is that made of 
Holly bark; and to make it bear the water, they add 
turpentine. 
Of the berries of this plant birdlime was formerly 
made in England. This was done by boiling the ber- 
ries in water till they burft, when they were well beat- 
en in a mortar, and afterward waffled till all the bran- 
ny hufks were cleared away. 
That which is now commonly ufed with us is made 
of the bark of Holly, which is ftripped off about 
Midfummer ; this they boil for ten or twelve hours; 
and when the green coat is feparated from the other., 
they cover it up with Fern for a fortnight, and put it 
in a moift place, where it lies a fortnight, by which 
time the bark will be turned to a jelly, and no fibres 
of the wood be left ; then they beat it in a ftone mor- 
tar till it becomes a tough pafte ; this they wafh in a 
running ftream till no motes appear, and put it up to 
ferment for four or five days, and fcum it as often as 
' any thing arifes, and then lay it up for ufe. When 
they ufe it, they incorporate with it a third part of that 
oil over the fire. 
The birdlime that is brought from Damafcus is fup- 
pofed to be made of Sebeftens, their kernels being 
frequently found in it, but this will not endure either 
froft or wet. 
The birdlime brought from Spain is of an ill fmell. 
The bark of our Wayfaring Shrub, as it is faid, will 
make birdlime as good as the beft. 
VlSNAGA. See Daucus. 
V I T E X. Tourn. Inft. R. H. 603. tab. 373. Lin. Gen. 
Plant. 708. [fo called of vieo, Lat. to bend, becaufe 
its branches are very flexible ; it is alfo called Agnus 
Callus, becaufe it is believed to allay luff, for which 
the monks were wont to ufe it in their cloifters ; but 
by the tafte and fmell it fhould rather be aprovocative.] 
Agnus Callus, or the Chafle-tree. 
The Characters are, 
The empalement of the flower is floor t, cylindrical , and 
indented in five parts. The flower has one ringent petals 
with a /lender cylindrical tube ; the brim is plain, and di- 
vided into two lips’, the two lips are trifid', the middle 
fegment is the broadeft in both. It has four hair -like fta- 
mina which are a little longer than the tube , two being 
floor ter than the other , terminated by moveable flummits, \ 
and a roundiflo germen , flupporting a fender ftyle , crown- 
ed by two awl-Jhaped spreading ftigmas. The germen af- 
terward turns to a globular berry with flour cells , each 
containing one oval feed. 
This genus of plants is ranged in the fecond'fedion 
of Linnaeus’s fourteenth clafs, which contains thofe 
plants whofe flowers have two long and two fhorter 
ftamina, and the feeds are included in capfules. 
The Species are, 
1. Vite k [Agnus Caflus) foliis digitatis, fpicis verticil- 
latis. Lin. Sp. Plant. 93^ Chafle-tree with fingered 
leaves , and whorled [pikes of flowers. Vitex foliis an- 
guftioribus cannabis modo difpofitis. C. B. P. 475. 
Chafle- tree with narrow leaves difpofed like thofe of Hemp , 
or common Chafle-tree. 
1. Vitex ( Latifolia ) foliis digitatis ferratis, fpicis pani- 
culatis. Chafle-tree with fingered flawed leaves, and fpikes 
in panicles. Vitex folio latiore ferrato. Lob. Icon. "139. 
Chafle-tree with a broader flawed leaf. 
3. Vitex [Integer riniis) foliis ternatis quinatifve inte- 
gerrimis, paniculis dichocomis. Lin. Sp. Plant. 890. 
Chafle-tree with trifoliate and quinats leaves , and panicles 
of flowers rifling from the divtfion of the branches. Vi- 
tex trifolia minor Indica. Pluk. Aim. 390. Smaller In- 
dian trifoliate Chafle-tree. 
4. Vitex ( Negunda ) foliis quinatis ternatifque ferratis, 
fpicis alaribus terminalibufque. Chafle-tree with quinate 
and trifoliate flawed leaves, and fpikes of flowers from the 
wings terminating the branches. 
5. Vitex ( Chinenflsfl foliis ternatis quinatifque pinna to ~ 
incifis, fpicis verticillatis terminalibus. Chafle-tree with 
alternate 
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