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MISTLETOE 1 (Viscum See also: species of Viscum, of the botanical See also: family Loranthaceae
.
The whole genus is parasitical, and contains about twenty species, widely distributed in the warmer parts of the old See also: world; but only the mistletoe proper is a native of See also: Europe
.
It forms an See also: evergreen See also: bush, about 4 ft. in length, thickly crowded with forking branches and opposite leaves, which are about 2 in. long, obovate-lanceolate in shape and yellowish-See also: green; the dioecious See also: flowers, which are small and nearly of the same colour but yellower, appear in See also: February and See also: March; the
See also: white
See also: berry when ripe is filled with a viscous semi-transparent pulp (whence See also: bird-lime is derived)
.
The mistletoe is parasitic both on deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs
.
In See also: England it is most abundant on the See also: apple-See also: tree, but rarely found on the See also: oak
.
Poplars, willows, lime, See also: mountain-ash, maples, are favourite habitats, and it is also found on many other trees, including See also: cedar of See also: Lebanon and larch
.
The fruit is eaten by most frugivorous birds, and through their agency, particularly that of the species which is accordingly known as missel-thrush or mistle-thrush, the plant is propagated
.
The Latin proverb has it that " Turdus malum See also: sibi cacat "; but the sowing is really effected by the bird wiping its beak, to which the seeds adhere, against the bark of the tree on which it has alighted
.
The viscid pulp soon hardens, affording a See also: protection to the seed; in germination the sucker-See also: root penetrates the bark, and a connexion is established with the vascular tissue of the first plant
.
The growth of the plant is slow, and its durability proportionately See also: great, its See also: death being determined generally by that of the tree on which it has established itself
.
The mistletoe so extensively used in England at See also: Christmas is largely derived from the apple orchards of See also: Normandy; a quantity is also sent from the apple orchards of See also: Herefordshire
.
See also: Pliny (H
.
N., xvi . 92–95; See also: xxiv
.
6) has a See also: good See also: deal to tell about the viscum, a deadly parasite, though slower in its See also: action than ivy
.
He distinguishes three genera." " On the See also: fir and larch grows what is called stelis in Euboea and hyphear in See also: Arcadia." Viscum, called dryos hyphear, is most plentiful on the esculent oak, but occurs also on the robur, Prunus sylvestris and See also: terebinth
.
Hyphear is useful for fattening cattle if they are See also: hardy enough to withstand the purgative effect it produces at first; viscum is medicinally of value as an emollient, and in cases of See also: tumour, ulcers and the like
.
Pliny is also our authority for the reverence in which the mistletoe when found growing on the robur was held by the See also: Druids
.
Prepared as a draught, it was used as a cure for sterility and a remedy for poisons
.
The mistletoe figures also in Scandinavian See also: legend as having furnished the material of the arrow with which See also: Balder (the See also: sun-See also: god) was slain by the See also: blind god Hoder
.
Most" probably this See also: story had its origin in a particular theory as to the meaning of the word mistletoe
.
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