£ February 25 f 1899. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
409 
in question in good general health ? and did it 
make good growth last year? If not, individual 
weakness is most likely the cause. You may give 
the Deutzias a little shade during the middle of a 
bright day,—it will help to prolong the lives of the 
flowers—but do not keep the shade on too long. 
Road Scrapings — M. In a bed measuring 6ft. 
by 12 ft., with a very heavy soil, a couple of barrow 
loads of road scrapings would make a great improve¬ 
ment if they were mixed thoroughly with the heavier 
soil. Coal ashes are also useful for mechanically 
improving very heavy soil, but there their value 
ceases. 
Astilbe japonica, is frequently grown as a hardy 
outdoor plant, G. Caryl, but it is perhaps more fre¬ 
quently seen thus in Scotland and the north of 
England than in the Midlands and the south of 
Britain. 
-.f»- 
SOME GOOD APPLES. 
(i Continued from page 359.) 
Wyken, or Warwickshire Pippin, is a favourite 
here, whose fruit is juicy, crisp, and the flavour good ; 
and those who enjoy a soft eating Apple from 
November to March should plant this variety. It 
bears well with us most seasons, and carries medium 
size fruit if duly thinned in its early stages. It does 
well as a pyramid or espalier. (See the accompany¬ 
ing illustration.) 
the accompanying illustration, was given on p. 359. 
— J. Mayne, Bicton. 
--*»- 
THE MISTLETO. 
(Concluded from p. 394 .) 
That the Mistleto is entirely dependent on the 
juice or sap of the tree on which it grows I have 
proved by felling the tree, when this curious parasite 
at once withers away. 
De Candolle, to prove the same thing, dipped in 
water, coloured red by cochineal, a branch of an 
Apple tree bearing Mistleto. 
The coloured water penetrated the wood and inner 
bark of the Apple tree, and passed into the Mistleto, 
where its colour was even more intense than in the 
former. 
Having for a number of years back kept a record 
and collected information from every available source 
of the trees on which the Mistleto has been found 
growing, I have now much pleasure in recording it 
along with a few notes on the plant itself, for the 
benefit of those readers of your paper who are inter¬ 
ested in such, and I will feel thankful to anyone who 
will extend the list either through the medium of 
the paper, or by direct communication with me. 
The following may be relied upon as an accurate 
summary of Mistleto trees, the addresses of recorders 
being in my possession. 
Apple, Pear, Peach, Whitethorn, Crabtree, Oak, 
5. Oak, at Burningford Farm, Basingstoke, Hants 
6. „ 
not far from Plymouth (by side of South 
Devon Railway). 
7 - .. 
Frampton Severn, Gloucestershire. 
8 . „ 
Haven, in the ancient forest of Durford, 
Hereford. 
9 - .. 
Bredwardine, Herefordshire. 
10. ,, 
Hackwood Park, Basingstoke, Hants. 
11. ,, 
Hendre, Llangattoch, Lingoed, Mon¬ 
mouth. 
12. 
Knightrick Church, Worcestershire. 
J 3 ' .. 
Lord Londes Park, Leescourt, Kent. 
14- »> 
Llindridge, Worcestershire. 
15 - .. 
two miles from Cheltenham 
16. „ 
and Fir trees, in the remains of an old 
forest which extends here and there 
from about Falley to Llanfihangel, 
along the courses of both Cotti and 
Towy rivers in Carmarthenshire. 
I have now come to the conclusion that there is no 
tree on which the Mistleto will not grow, and that its 
scarcity on any tree is not owing to any dislike on the 
part of the Mistleto, and I believe that further 
research will only tend to confirm my statement. In 
France, the Mistleto grows on the Oak even more 
rarely than in England. 
De Candolle found it in France on the Lombardy 
Poplar, the Walnut, common Plum, and Medlar, and 
mentioned it as growing on the Spruce Fir and Ash. 
Mr. Loudon observed it in 1814, on the Scotch Fir, 
in the neighbourhood of Magdelburg in immense 
Apple Wyken Pippin. 
Apple Margil. 
Lord Suffield is an excellent kitchen Apple, 
large in size, and briskly flavoured ; in fact it is one 
of our best early Apples, and a great cropper most 
seasons. It makes a capital standard and is a most 
valuable kitchen Apple on account of its earliness, 
beiog ready for use early in August, and I have kept 
them well into October. 
Lord Grosvenor is a similar Apple to the last 
named, and will often thrive where Lord Suffield 
fails. It is a trifle later in coming into use, and lasts 
well into December. Of the two Lord Suffield bears 
the best here, Lord Grosvenor cropping well every 
other year with us as an espalier. 
Scarlet Nonpareil is a good all round dessert 
Apple, doing as well in the orchard as in the garden. 
The fruits are medium in size, of good flavour, and 
handsome in appearance. The tree bears wonderfully 
with us, as an espalier especially, and I confidently 
recommend this variety to any one in search of a good 
Apple for the table from Christmas up to the end of 
March. 
Duchess of Oldenburgh, an old inhabitant of 
our gardens but still a welcome early Apple for 
the kitchen or dessert during the end of August 
and the following month, reaches a good size 
and the flesh is very juicy. 
Worcester Pearmain is a comparatively new 
Apple and valuable on account of its earliness, com¬ 
ing in during August or September, the fruit getting 
a beautiful bright red, of conical shape, and looking 
well on the table. The flavour is not of the best 
according to some critics, but I think soil has a great 
deal to do with this, as with us the flavour is very 
good. The variety should prove remunerative as a 
market Apple on account of its handsome appearance. 
Margil. —An account of this variety, shown in 
Ash, Elm (English and Scotch), Birch, Sycamore, 
Willow (several kinds), Medlar, Maple (various 
species), Poplar (black and white), Lime, Service, 
White Beam, Hazel, Horse-Chestnut, Acacia, Moun¬ 
tain Ash, Laburnum, White Broom, Alder, Laurel, 
Locust Tree, Hornbeam, Larch, and, according to a 
correspondent of" The Garden," abundant on Scotch 
Fir between Munich and Innspruck, in the Bavarian 
Tyrol. 
The late Mr. Bentham, in his last edition of the 
“ British Flora," says that Mistleto is not known in 
Scotland or Ireland. This is, however, surely a 
mistake, and one into which subsequent writers have 
fallen, as in an orchard held by my father on a pro¬ 
perty in the north of Ireland I have frequently seen 
the Mistleto growing on the Apple trees ; and in 
Scotland, according to Mr. Henry Evershed, it 
grows on the north side of Kinnoul Hill (near Perth), 
and in the nursery of Mr. Morrison, at Elgin and at 
Gordon Castle, in Morayshire. 
I believe, however, although I am unable to state 
positively at present, that in neither Scotland nor 
Ireland has the Mistleto been found growing on the 
Oak. 
The Mistleto is, perhaps, more frequently associ¬ 
ated with the Oak than any other tree, but it is well- 
known that the plant is rarely found on the Oak- 
how rarely the following list, which I believe to be 
about complete, but to which I shall be glad of 
authentic additions, of Mistleto Oaks in England and 
Wales will show :— 
1. Oak, at Clarendon Park, Salisbury, Wilts. 
2. ,, Eastnor, Hereford. 
3. ,, Ledstone, Delamere. 
4. „ Badham’s Court, Sunbury Park, near 
Chepstow. 
quantities, and says that it grows upon the Olive, in 
Spain and near Jerusalem, but not in France. He 
had it on the Cherry in his garden at Bayswater. It 
has been reported to me on good authority that it 
grows on the Vine in Italy, as well as on its near 
relative the Loranthus europaeus. 
In Windsor Park the Mistleto may be seen in great 
quantities on Poplars, Oaks, and Birches; through¬ 
out Kent it may not uncommonly be found on the 
Thorn and Apple trees. The parish of Curland, in 
Somersetshire, abounds in Mistleto, and some of 
these are of unusual size. A friend sends the weights 
of three boughs collected in that district in i88o-’8i- 
’82:—1st, 26 lbs. ; 2nd, 10 lbs. ; and 3rd, 8 lbs. 
The family of the Loranthaceae to which our 
common Mistleto belongs has but one other European 
representative, viz., the Loranthus europaeus, or Oak 
Mistleto, a plant which, it has been suggested, was 
once a native of Great Britain, but that all vestiges 
of their religion having been extirpated with the 
Druids, the Loranthus has disappeared wherever 
that religion formerly held its sway. 
This is, however, very improbable, as apart from 
no record 01 remains of the plant being preserved, 
the Loranthus is a native of much warmer countries 
than our own, and has defied repeated attempts to 
get it established even in the warmer parts of the 
British Isles. 
Of the Druidical and superstitious uses of the 
Mistleto much might be said, if I had not already 
trespassed sufficiently on your time and space. 
Some curious particulars are related by Pliny in 
his “Natural History," where we learn that it was 
ordained to be cut with a golden knife and only by 
the priest, clothed in white, and the plant received 
on a white napkin, when the moon was six days old, 
