HOW MISTLETOE! AFFECTS ITS HOST 
61 
region. Finally investigations were made, and it developed that the 
primary causes of the deterioration was due to the suppressing effects 
of mistletoe. On the drier and more exposed areas, where the condi¬ 
tions are less favorable for the host and more favorable for the parasite, 
the destruction is much greater than in the more moist, and fertile valleys 
not parallel with the 1 direction of the 
prevailing wind. 
There are various ways in 
which the mistletoe injures its host, 
the tree on which it grows. It sends 
its roots through the bark into the 
growing layer and draws sustenance 
from the tree. As a result of this 
attack there grows upon the trunk 
or branch a burl which reduces the 
quality of the timber. When a 
young tree is attacked and these 
burls are formed, the food-trans¬ 
porting tissues, are reduced and the 
growth of the tree is directly hin¬ 
dered. Too, these knots often form 
open wounds for the entrance of 
fungi and insects. 
But the mistletoe produces the 
greatest injury in the shortest time 
by causing the formation of witch¬ 
es ’-brooms. Soon after a seed takes 
root upon a branch, the branch be¬ 
gins putting out from the point of infection many branchlets, which 
never attain much length. The cluster, or witches ’-broom, grows larger 
and larger until finally the weight is too great for the parent branch to 
bear. So with a gust of wind a little stronger than usual the branch 
snaps and the witches’-broom falls to the ground. Oftentimes a tree is 
robbed of its foliage and branches in this manner and as a result of be¬ 
ing thus deprived of its normal food-supply, dies) at a premature age. 
Various suggestions have been made for the protection of our 
forests in the States mentioned above and for the destruction of the 
mistletoe. ^• Gtq,gg Gvo/Jid/Ttbi 
