346 
THi'. NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
MISLETOE 
M ISLETOE can hardly be said to hold a very im¬ 
portant position in the horticultural world, as 
the Phoradendrons, the genus to which the 
JMisletoe belongs are not cultivated. The Phoradendron 
flavescens, American Misletoe, is so closely associated 
with Christmas, we offer no apololgy for featuring it in 
our December number. 
Our illustration is an excellent specimen growing in 
situ, and we feel very sure that the photographer had to 
do some high climbing to take the picture. 
It is a parasitic plant growing on various trees through 
the Southern States, New Jersey being its Northern 
limit. It does not seem to be at all particular as to its 
choice of host, as it may be found growing on almost any 
kind of tree in the South. The hulk of Misletoe shipped 
to the Northern markets for Christinas comes from New 
Mexico and Oklahoma. 
In the more populated parts of Virginia and North 
Carolina, the traveler does not see great (juantities of it 
hut rather an occasional plant in the high trees in the 
woods. Like the Holly, Rhododendron and other plants 
for which there is a demand it is gradually disappearing. 
Economically it would be naturally classed with the pests 
being detrimental to more valuable plants upon which it 
lives. 
Like all unusual forms of plant life it has an attraction 
all its own, apart from the sentimental associations at¬ 
tached to it, and who knows hut in the* distant future 
some visionary horticulturist may develop its possibilities 
as an ornamental subject. 
The only time the writer ever saw the Misletoe under 
cultivation was at Veitch Nursery, London, where they 
had a number of apple trees in tulis with fine branches 
of the old Country Misletoe, Viscun flavescens growing 
on them, and for which was asked a fancy price. 
There is no doubt that some rich young men would be 
willing to pay any price for the opportunty to sit under 
a bough of real living misletoe with some particular girl. 
It is interesting to note that many Old Countiy plants 
have their prototypes in the new world of which the 
Misletoe and Holly are good examples. Most students 
agree that in the geologic past they were identical, and 
had one common origin. 
If one even tries to imagine the lapse of time that must 
have gone by since the continents of Europe and America 
were joined it is surprising how little such jilants have 
changed through the ages. 
THE SKILLED EMPLOYEE 
The skilled employee, who is contented and will stick, 
is as valuable an asset as a nursery business can possibly 
have. 
It would he worth while for employers to study the 
subject from the employee’s angle to see if it is not in the 
realm of possibilities to create those conditions that would 
produce more loyal and faithful service. 
The troubles, difficulties, and problems of the master 
nurseryman may be heard at any of the conventions, and 
other places where nurserymen meet but the voice of the 
apprentice and craftsman is silent except on rare occa¬ 
sions. 
There are many reasons advanced why more and a 
better grade of young men do not follow the nursery 
business for a livelihood such as low wages, long hours, 
not enough excitement, lack of opportunity for advance¬ 
ment, etc., all of which perhaps are partial reasons, but 
which will not stand if compared with other lines of occu¬ 
pation. 
In reality the profession of horticulture, with its many 
branches, is really one of the finest a boy can follow. 
There is no limit to its possibilities, he can either follow 
a humdrum existence at home or fit himself as a pioneer 
in foreign lands, specializing on some economic plant. 
It is true the routine of an ordinary nursery does not 
fit him to become manager of a tea plantation in Ceylon, 
or a coffee grower in Brazil or the Curator of a Botanic 
Garden in some distant and undeveloped corner of the 
earth. 
Yet the fundamentals of horticulture are the same the 
world over and there is no better place to learn them 
than in a well managed nursery. 
The boy worth while is ambitious, he must have a goal 
in view at least in his imagination, the only one that is 
hung up before him on the average nursery is plenty of 
hard work without a veiy inspiring future. 
No one tells him of the possibilities of his becoming the 
best propagator in the country, or fires his enthusiasm 
with the thoughts of owning a cocoanut grove. 
He is isolated without a class standing such as exists 
in schools, colleges, railroads, factories and workshops. 
The old practice of apprenticing to learn a trade or bus¬ 
iness had much to commend it but it is a thing of the pasl 
and there has been nothing organized to take its place. 
The learner takes his chance with the laborer and very 
soon gets into the laborer’s way of thinking that the pay 
envelope is the sum total and end of the days’ work. 
