1006 Marvels of the Universe 
The beginning of the story is with the flowers. Some persons who have taken great care to 
cultivate the Mistletoe upon an apple or poplar have been disappointed in getting a fine bush of the 
parasite, but never a berry. This is due to the fact that the flowers are male or female, and that the 
bush which produces the male flowers very rarely bears a female flower. The female flowers alone 
develop into berries. 
As flowers are popularly considered, those of the Mistletoe are very poor affairs. They 
are small and inconspicuous, being quite without the petals that make other flowers attractive. 
Their envelope consists solely of four little triangular green sepals surrounding an equal 
number of stamens, or a simple little ovary with its stalkless stigma. In spite of this un- 
Photo by] ‘ > [A. W. Dennis. 
MISTLETOE FRUIT. 
Female branches in winter when the inconspicuous flowers have developed into pearl-white berries. These are shown 
about one-third less than the natural size. Each berry contains a single seed. 
attractiveness, the flowers (which make their appearance in spring) are visited by flies and bees, 
who carry the pollen from the male bush to the female bush, and so aid in the fertilization which 
results in the pearly-white berries. Each berry measures a third of an inch across, and contains 
one seed with a thick coat of slimy pulp. 
The pulp is beloved of the missel-thrush, which has got its distinctive name from the fact ; but 
the seeds resist the action of its digestive apparatus, and are sown by the bird on branches. Getting 
into a crevice of the bark, the seed germinates and sends a shoot through the bark and into the 
wood. This internal shoot develops into a thick woody peg, and an external part becomes a tough 
stem with leaves in pairs. At first it appears to be content with the thin watery sap that rises from 
the roots of the tree through the heart wood, but, later, it sends out branches into the bast, that 
lies between wood and bark, through which descends the rich, elaborated sap from the leaves. It 
