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MISTLETOE 1 (Viscum album)

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 616 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MISTLETOE 1 (Viscum See also:

album) , a 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. See also:long, obovate-lanceolate in shape and yellowish-See also:green; the dioecious See also:flowers, which are small and nearly of the same See also: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-See also:lime is derived). The mistletoe is parasitic both on See also: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 See also:larch. The See also:fruit is eaten by most frugivorous birds, and through their agency, particularly that of the species which is accordingly known as missel-See also:thrush or mistle-thrush, the plant is propagated. The Latin See also:proverb has it that " Turdus malum See also:sibi cacat "; but the See also:sowing is really effected by the bird wiping its See also: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 See also:seed; in germination the sucker-See also:root penetrates the bark, and a connexion is established with the vascular See also: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 See also:parasite, though slower in its See also:action than See also:ivy. He distinguishes three genera." " On the See also:fir and larch grows what is called stelis in See also: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 See also: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 See also: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.

End of Article: MISTLETOE 1 (Viscum album)

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