MISTLETOE. 
The mistletoe grows on trees. It has no roots of its 
own, but attaches itself to the bark of the tree and 
sucks out the sap. 
Since it lives up in trees, its seeds must be able to find 
lodgment in these high places ; and this the birds help 
them to do. The mistletoe has light green leaves ; it 
grows in bunches and bears white berries. 
The seeds in the berries are covered by a viscid sub- 
stance, and when the birds eat the berries, some of these 
seeds will be apt to cling to them and be left on the 
branches of some other tree. 
If the seeds happen to get swallowed, that does not 
hurt them, for they are not digested, but are passed 
out just as they were swallowed, and they then often 
fall upon the tree branches, where they can grow. 
The English mistletoe very often grows upon the 
oak tree, and from very early times the plant was rev- 
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