242 TETRANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. Isnardia. 
755. 1— FI. Dan. 265—Gies. 38— Matth. 156— Lon. ii. 8. 2— Clus. i. 110. 
1— Lob. Obs. 598. 3 : Ic. ii. 180. 1— Ger. Em. 1334. 2— Park. 1006. 1. 
Shrub eight feet high. Branches widely spreading, straight, stiff, thorny at 
the ends; the lesser numerous, scattered, short, expanding. St. Leaves 
strap-spear-shaped, very entire, green above, and whitish scales, white 
underneath, with a strong prominent mid-rib, which has a corresponding 
furrow on the upper surface, edges usually somewhat reflexed. Woodw. 
Flowers solitary, appearing before the leaves. Barren Jlowers below the 
leaves, between a branch and a bud; fertile Jlowers sessile in the 
bosom of the lowermost leaves. 
Sea Buckthorn. Common Sallow Thorn. Sea-shore, in sand. Bind¬ 
ley coast, Lincolnshire; Sandwich, Deal, Folkstone. Isle of Sheppey. 
Cley and Sherringham Cliffs, Norfolk. Mr. Crowe. Between Yarmouth 
and Winterton. Mr. Woodward. (Cliff between Whitby and Lyth. Mr. 
Travis. E.) S. March—May.* 
(ISNAR'DIA. Cal. four-cleft, superior : Caps, quadrangular, 
of four cells, crowned by the calyx. 
I. palus'tris. 
Lind. Alsat. 115. t. 2.5.— Bocc. Mus. t. 84. f. 2. 
Herb floating, smooth, with numerous long, filamentous roots. Stems seve¬ 
ral, about a span long, simple, or slightly branched, leafy, bluntly quad¬ 
rangular. Leaves opposite, stalked, ovate, acute, undivided, entire, 
scarcely an inch in length, bright green, somewhat succulent, the mid¬ 
rib often red or purplish. Bracteas two, acute, small. FI. axillary, 
solitary, sessile, small, green and inconspicuous. Segments of the calyx 
triangular. 
it grows, dipped in water, coloured red by cochineal, a branch of an apple-tree bearing 
Missletoe. The coloured water penetrated the wood and inner bark of the apple-tree, and 
passed into the Missletoe, where its colour was even more intense than in the former. It 
also appears by another ingenious experiment that the leaves of this plant perform the 
same function to the apple-tree as the true leaves of the tree do. The above eminent 
naturalist, never having observed the Missletoe growing on the Oak, is inclined to believe 
that the Loranthus must have been the real Viscum Qnerchs, and so it is commonly 
esteemed in Italy ; but we have no reason to supppose that the Loranthus was ever indi¬ 
genous to Britain. Such a deduction would be contrary to the concurrent testimony of ages. 
In Virgil, iEn. 6., we readily recognize our sacred Epidendron :— 
<c Quale solet sylvis bruraali frigore Viscum, 
Fronde vivere nova, quod non sua seminat arbos, 
Et croceo fcetu teretes circumdare truncos.” 
It is, however, a remarkable fact, even noticed by Pliny, that the Missletoe is very rarely 
found on the Oak. As a circumstance of uncommon occurrence, even in an age abound¬ 
ing with observers of nature, Mr. Dickson, in 1817, presented to the Linnaean Society a 
specimen of Missletoe found by him growing upon an oak-tree, about four miles from Maid¬ 
stone, by the side of the Medway. Whether the infrequency of such an union, or the 
power of the Druids to produce the phenomenon by artificial means when and where it 
best suited their occult purposes, added to its supposed virtue, it may not be possible to de¬ 
termine ; but that the favourite Mona of the Druids, (Anglesey,) should not latterly pro¬ 
duce a single plant of the venerated Missletoe, (as we learn from the Rev. Hugh Davies,) 
would scarcely be expected. E.) 
* Cows refuse it; goats, sheep, and horses eat it. The berries are very acid, with an 
austere vinous flavour, and the fishermen of the Gulf of Bothnia prepare a rob from them, 
which, added to fresh fish, imparts a very grateful flavour. In sunny sandy situations 
it is planted for hedges. Linn. (This shrub is often cultivated in gardens for the beauty 
of its foliage, but rarely perfects its berries in such situations ; gardeners being inattentive 
to plant both sorts together. It is valuable as affording partial shelter in exposed situations 
near the sea. E.) 
