22 
Gardeners are proverbially a long-lived race ; and 
that they should he so might have been anticipated, 
for their employment in the open air, with the exer¬ 
cise and early hours it requires them to adopt, are 
conducive to longevity. Knight lived to be SO years 
old, Martyn to be 90, Abercrombie, Miller, and Swit¬ 
zer, 80, Spechley 86, and Dickson 84. But the ex¬ 
posure to the open air, an exposure not to be shrunk 
from during seasons the most inclement, whilst it is 
conducive to length of days, brings with it, also, di¬ 
seases which render the close of those days decrepid, 
painful, and incapable of useful effort. Among other 
acute diseases to which gardeners are particularly 
liable is rheumatism, the torturer and the disabler ; 
and it is so prevalent among them, that it might not 
be inaptly called “ the gardener’s scourge.” It is to 
help those gardeners, disabled by such diseases and 
by old age, when even “ the grasshopper shall be a 
burden,” and “ the dust, ere long, will return to the 
earth as it was,” that we appeal to our readers this 
day. 
There is in London a society entitled “ The Bene¬ 
volent Institution for the relief of aged and indigent 
Gardeners and their Widows,”—such a society as all 
Great Britain may be appropriately asked to aid; 
for no one exists whose senses have not been grati¬ 
fied by the beauty, the fragrance, or the flavour of 
some product of the skill of those whose old age that 
society helps to rescue from penury and sorrow. 
The society is ably and economically conducted, 
and thirty-four poor gardeners, or their widows, are 
now receiving annuities from its funds, amounting 
yearly, as a whole, to L'500 ; “ but the increasing 
number of applicants renders an appeal to the public 
necessary,” and when our readers know that the 
smallest subscriptions will be acceptable, and that no 
one can be a candidate for assistance until sixty 
years of age, we think that many of them will contri¬ 
bute their mites out of gratitude to those who have 
laboured to promote an art from which they have 
derived so much pleasure, and certain as they may 
be that their benevolence will not be misapplied. 
The subscriber of a guinea annually is entitled to 
vote, either personally or by proxy, at the election of 
pensioners when vacancies occur; but any smaller 
sums will be gladly received, and will be promptly 
acknowledged, by the secretary, Mr. E. "R. Cutler, 
97, Farringdon-street, who will readily attend to any 
inquiries. 
In answer to one signing himself “ One from the 
Lakes,” we answer that the Mistletoe may be pro¬ 
pagated easily by its seeds ; and we answer him thus 
prominently because we think it a subject of general 
interest, and that some of the information we have 
to give is known to very few. 
We fear that the season for sowing the Mistletoe is 
April 
passed for this year, the best months for so doing 
being in February and March. If, however, any of 
the berries of this parasitical plant are to be found, 
the experiment may yet be tried. The mode of sow¬ 
ing is very simple. Make two cuts, in the shape of 
the letter V, on the underside of the branch of an 
apple-tree, where it is wished to establish the Mistle¬ 
toe. Make the cuts quite down to the wood of the 
branch ; raise the tongue of bark made by the cuts, 
but not so as to break it, and put underneath one or 
two seeds freshly squeezed from the Mistletoe berry. 
Let the tongue back into its place, and the process is 
completed. 
If the seed is good, it will soon send forth its two¬ 
leaved progeny, not unlike cucumber plants when 
they first appear above the soil. They remain at¬ 
tached to the branch, and do not appear at all to 
injure the tree. 
We were instructed in this mode of Mistletoe-cul¬ 
ture by Mr. Weaver, the every-way praiseworthy 
gardener of the Warden of Winchester College ; and 
we will add some of his observations from notes we 
made at the time, because they are extracts from that 
volume whence, if read aright, no untruths can be 
obtained—the book of Nature. He shewed us plants 
of the Mistletoe of various ages which he had thus 
raised, and added that he had selected February and 
March as the sowing time, because he observed that 
the Mistle-thrash then began to feed upon the hemes 
of the Mistletoe, from which it derives its specific 
name, and thus was the means of, at that season, 
depositing the seeds on the branches where they ve¬ 
getated. Mr. Weaver opened the bark underneath 
the branch to receive his Mistletoe seed, not only 
because it was there preserved from an accumulation 
of rain water, and was shaded from the sun, but be¬ 
cause he observed that the seeds deposited by the 
thrush floated in the excrement of the bird, and 
passed with it to beneath the branch. 
The Mistletoe is found in the greatest abundance 
in the cider orchards of the West of England, and 
there alone, we believe, is it turned to any useful 
purpose. Mr. Weaver says that it is gathered early 
in the spring, and the leaves and young shoots, being 
boiled, are given to young lambs and pigs. It 
abounds with mucilage, or gummy matter, and is 
found to be very fattening. 
The Mistletoe may also be propagated by grafts, 
and it is said that it will succeed upon any tree. It 
is certainly found upon the pine in Germany, but we 
question very much whether it would live upon the 
walnut. It will grow, yet with difficulty, upon the 
oak, but it readily takes upon the apple, pear, poplar, 
and willow. Our coadjutor, Mr. Beaton, writing in 
1837, says ( Oard. Mag. iii. 207, N. S.), the first weeks 
of May are best for grafting the Mistletoe, and that 
it should never be inserted less than five nor more 
than ten feet from the ground. Make an incision in 
the bark, and insert into it a thin slice of Mistletoe, 
having a bud and one leaf at the end. Grafts larger 
than half an inch in diameter require a notch to be 
cut out of the branch, the incision to receive the scion 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
