bitter to the taste; and, as Mr. Royle informs us, it is eaten by the inhabitants of the hills in the Himalayas. It is a native of Nepal, where it grows to a small tree, approaching, in the general appearance and character of its leaves and flowers, to C. flórida, but differing from that species in its fruit. The plant was first found by Dr. Wallich, on the top of a mountain in Nepal; and specimens were subsequently sent to him from other mountains in that country, where the tree is described to be about the size of an apple tree; flowering in June, and ripening its fruit in October. Seeds were obtained by Sir Anthony Buller, during his residence in the East Indies, and sent by him to his

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relation, J. H. Tremayne, Esq., in whose garden, at Heligan, in Cornwall, plants were first raised in England, in 1825. In December, 1833, specimens of this plant, bearing ripe fruit, leaves, and flower buds, were sent to the Gardener's Magazine, by Mr. Roberts, the gardener at Heligan; who described the plant as an evergreen, and as being then 16 ft. in height, and covered with fruit. It had stood out in the open ground for 8 years, without any protection whatever, not even that of a mat. It is planted in stiff clay, and at a great elevation. It produces a profusion of flowers during summer, and of fruit in autumn. The plant is readily propagated either from seeds or cuttings, and will, no doubt, soon be frequent in collections. Judging from the plants in the Horticultural Society's Garden, it seems to prefer a situation rather shaded and moist, than dry and sandy; which corresponds with the experience of Mr. Roberts in Cornwall; and it will probably be found somewhat tender for a few years after planting. There can be no doubt, however, of its ultimately proving perfectly hardy; at least as much so as Córnus flórida; for Mr. Royle mentions that he found it in several situations in the Himalayas, at elevations of from 6500 ft. to 8000 ft., in conjunction with species of Sórbus, Cotoneaster, and Cratæ gus. (Hort. Trans., new ser., vol. i. p. 458.) Perhaps it might be rendered hardier by grafting it on Córnus sanguínea. Plants of this species, in the London nurseries, are 2s. 6d. each.

CHAP. LXII.

OF THE HARDY LIGNEOUS PLANTS OF THE ORDER LORANTHA CEE.

THE hardy ligneous plants belonging to this order are included in the genera Viscum and Aucuba.

VI'SCUM L. Flowers dioecious, or monacious. Margin of the calyx obsolete, in the male flowers almost wanting. Petals usually 4, connected at the base in the male flowers, but free in the female. Stamens 4. Stigma obtuse, sessile. Berry globular, smooth, juicy, viscid, of 1 cell. Seed solitary, heart-shaped, compressed, sometimes with 2-4 embryos. (Dec. Prod. and Don's Mill., adapted.)- Parasitical on trees, shrubby, branched, smooth, and pale green. Leaves entire, mostly opposite.

AU CUBA Thunb. Flowers dioecious. Calyx 5-toothed. Petals 4, ovatelanceolate. Stamens 4, alternating with the petals. Stigma concrete. Fruit fleshy, 1-seeded. A small evergreen tree or shrub, with dichotomous or verticillate branches, and entire, opposite leaves, in the manner of Viscum. Botanists are not quite agreed as to what order this genus should be placed under; but, as this is a matter of no great consequence in a work like the present, we have followed G. Don, in including it in Loranthaceæ.

GENUS I.

VI'SCUM L. THE MISTLETOE. Lan. Syst. Monœ`cia, or Diœ'cia,

Tetrándria.

Identification. Tourn. Inst., p. 609.; Lin. Gen., No. 1105.; Dec. Prod., 4. p. 277.; Don's Mill., 2. p. 402.

Synonymes. Misseldine, Gui, or Guy, Fr.; Mistl, or Missel, Ger.; Visco, or Vischio, Ital.; Legamodoga, Span.

Derivation. Viscus, or viscum, is the Latin for birdlime, which is made from the berries; and Mistletoe is by some supposed to be derived from mist, the German word for dung, or slimy dirt, and by others from mistelta, the Saxon name for the plant.

Description. Parasitical shrubs, found on the trunks and branches of trees, of which 76 species are described in Don's Miller; but only one is a native of Europe, and this has its sexes diœcious.

£ 1. V. ALBUM L. The white-fruited, or common, Mistletoe.

Identification. Lin. Sp., 1451.; Dec. Prod., 4. p. 277.; Don's Mill., 3. p. 403. Engravings. N. Du Ham., 1. t. 115.; Eng. Bot., t. 1470.; Baxt. Brit. Pl., t. 40. ; and our fig. 771., which exhibits a portion of a male plant, marked m, and of a female plant in fruit, marked f. Spec. Char., &c. Stem much branched, forked; with sessile intermediate heads, of about 5 flowers. Branches terete. Leaves obovate-lanceolate, obtuse, nerveless. (Don's Mill., iii. p. 403.) Parasitical both on deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs.

Description. The mistletoe forms an evergreen bush, pendent from the trunks and branches of trees, composed of dichotomous shoots, opposite leaves, and yellow flowers, which are succeeded by fruit, which is almost always white, but of which there is said to be a variety with red fruit. The plant is seldom more than 3 ft. or 4 ft. in diameter; it is thickly crowded with branches and leaves. Their growth is slow, seldom more than 2 in. or 3 in. of the shoot, and two or three pairs of leaves, being produced in a season. The leaves vary considerably in different plants, as may be seen in fig. 772., which contains engravings of three different specimens, sent to us by our esteemed friend, Mr. Baxter, curator of the Botanic Garden, Oxford; all reduced to the same scale of 2 in. to a foot. The durability of the plant is proportionably great; for, when once established on a tree, it is seldom known to cease growing while the tree is in life; but, when it dies, or the branch on which it is rooted decays, or becomes diseased, the death of the mistletoe immediately follows.

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Geography. The mistletoe is found throughout Europe, and in the colder regions of Asia; and probably, also, of Africa and South America, though the species found in these countries have other names. It is found in various parts of England; and it has also been discovered in one situation in Scotland (Meikleour); though it cannot be considered as truly indigenous there. The trees on which the mistletoe grows belong to various natural orders; and, indeed, it would be difficult to say on what dicotyledonous trees it will not grow. In England, it is found on Tiliàceæ, Aceràceæ, Rosàceæ, Cupulíferæ, Salicaceæ, Oleaceæ, and, we believe, also on Coníferæ. At any rate, in the neighbourhood of Magdeburg, it is growing in immense quantities on Pìnus sylvestris. In France, it grows on trees of all the natural orders mentioned, but least frequently on the oak. It does not grow on the olive in France, though it abounds on the almond. In Spain, it grows on the olive; as it does in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem; and, in the latter locality, is found the variety with red fruit, which is perhaps a Loránthus. In England, it is most abundant on the apple tree, in the cider counties; but, in artificial plantations, it is to be found on most of the trees of which they consist. It is abundant

on the common lime tree, at Shardeloes, in Buckinghamshire; and on the black poplar, at Sutton Place, in Surrey.

History. The mistletoe was known to the Greeks and Romans. In speaking of that which grows on the oak, we must not forget that Pliny says that "the Gauls held this plant in the greatest veneration; and that their magicians, whom they call druids, consider nothing more sacred." The Greeks and Romans appear to have valued it chiefly for its medicinal qualities; and more especially as an antidote to poisons. The Persian magi gathered the mistletoe with great care, and used it in their religious ceremonies. According to Gerard, the mistletoe, in his time, was valued for several properties; but he says nothing respecting its propagation or culture. The first botanist who appears to have attempted this was the celebrated Du Hamel; and, since his time, its propagation has been attended with success, both in this country and on the Continent.

Properties and Uses. The berries have, from a very early period, been used as birdlime; which, Gerard says, is greatly to be preferred to birdlime made from the holly. The contrary of this, however, is asserted by Du Hamel. As a medicine, the mistletoe was frequently employed, in England, as a cure for epilepsy; but it no longer holds a place in the British materia medica. The berries are eaten by the blackbird, the fieldfare, and thrush; especially by the large, or missel, thrush. It was formerly believed that birdlime was only the excrements of the thrush, which feeds chiefly on the berries of this tree, and that the bird was often caught by what it had itself voided. Hence the Latin proverb, " Turdus malum sibi cacat." The principal use made of the entire plant is, to hang up in kitchens of farm-houses, &c., at Christmas. In Herefordshire, where the berries are very abundant, a birdlime is sometimes made from them, by boiling them in water till they burst, and afterwards beating them up in water, and washing them, till all the husks are separated from the pulp. The Italians add oil to their mistletoe birdlime, after it has been thus prepared.

Mythological, poetical, and legendary Allusions. The mistletoe, particularly that which grows on the oak, was held in great veneration by the ancient Britons. At the beginning of their year, the druids went in solemn procession into the forests, and raised a grass altar at the foot of the finest oak, on which they inscribed the names of those gods which were considered as the most powerful. After this, the principal druid, clad in a white garment, ascended the tree, and cropped the mistletoe with a consecrated golden pruninghook, the other druids receiving it in a piece of pure white cloth, which they held beneath the tree. The mistletoe was then dipped in water by the chief druid, and distributed among the people, as a preservative against witchcraft and diseases. If any part of the plant touched the ground, it was considered to be the omen of some dreadful misfortune, which was about to fall upon the land. The ceremony was always performed when the moon was 6 days old, and two white bulls were sacrificed when it was concluded. The following fable respecting the mistletoe is abridged from the Edda: - Friga, the Scandinavian Venus, having discovered, through her skill in divination, that some evil threatened her son Balder (Apollo), exacted an oath from fire, earth, air, and water, and every thing that sprang from them, not to injure him. Loke, the evil spirit, finding, at a kind of tournament held soon after by the Scandinavian gods (who, it must be remembered, were very warlike deities), that none of the lances, &c., ever touched Balder, but glanced away, as though afraid of approaching him, suspected that they were under the influence of some charm, and determined, if possible, to discover what it was. For this purpose, he disguised himself as an old woman, and, introducing himself to Friga, contrived to insinuate himself into her confidence; when Friga told him that every thing that grew on the earth, flew in the air, swam in the sea, &c., had taken an oath not to hurt her son. Loke pointed to the mistletoe, which neither grew in earth, nor water, and asked her if it was included in the charm. Friga owned that it was not; but added, that so

feeble and insignificant a plant was not likely to injure Balder. Loke no sooner left Friga, than he formed of the branches of the mistletoe a sharp arrow, with which he instructed Heder (the blind god of fate) how to kill Balder. All nature mourned the loss of the god of the sun; and Hela (the goddess of death), moved by the universal grief, agreed to restore him, if it could be proved that every living thing had shed tears. Every creature wept; and even the trees drooped their branches to the earth, dripping like rain. Loke alone remained with dry eyes; till the gods, enraged at his apathy, rushed upon him en masse, and chained him in the bottomless pit; where he soon shed tears enough to release Balder; but where he is still left, and occasionally, by his struggles to get free, causes earthquakes. The magical properties of the mistletoe are mentioned both by Virgil and Ovid; and Apuleius has preserved some verses of the poet Lelius, in which he mentions the mistletoe as one of the things necessary to make a man a magician. In the dark ages, a similar belief prevailed; and, even to the present day, the peasants of Holstein, and some other countries, call the mistletoe the "spectre's wand;" from a supposition that holding a branch of mistletoe in the hand will not only enable a man to see ghosts, but to force them to speak to him. Forster mentions that a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1791 states that the guidbel, or mistletoe, is supposed by some to have been the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden; and adds that hence, probably, arose the custom of kissing under it at Christmas; though this appears to be a non sequitur. It is more probable that the custom has been handed down to us from our Saxon ancestors, who, on the restoration of Balder, dedicated the plant to their Venus, Friga, to place it entirely under her control, and prevent it from being again used against her as an instrument of mischief. In the feudal ages, it was gathered with great solemnity on Christmas Eve, and hung up in the great hall, with loud shouts and rejoicing.

"On Christmas Eve the bells were rung;
On Christmas Eve the mass was sung:
That only night in all the year

Saw the stoled priest the chalice rear.
The damsel donned her kirtle sheen;
The hall was dressed with holly green:
Forth to the woods did merry men go,
To gather in the misseltoe.

Then opened wide the Baron's hall
To vassal, tenant, serf, and all.”

In France, New Year's gifts are still called, in some of the provinces, guy 'an neuf. This is said by Forster, in his Perennial Calendar, p. 2., to have arisen from a practice of the druids; who, "with great ceremonies, used to scrape off from the outside of the oak the mistleden, which they consecrated to their great Teutates," on the first day of the New Year; and then distributed it to the Gauls, 66 on account of the extraordinary virtues they attributed to it."

Propagation. In a state of nature, the mistletoe is propagated by the berries being, by some means or other, made to adhere to the bark of a living tree. The common agency by which this is effected is supposed to be that of birds; and more especially of the missel thrush, which, after having satisfied itself by eating the berries, wipes off such of them as may adhere to the outer part of its beak, by rubbing it against the branch of the tree on which it has alighted; and some of the seeds are thus left sticking to the bark. If the bark should be smooth, and not much indurated, the seeds will germinate, and root into it the following spring; that is, supposing them to have been properly fecundated by the proximity of a male plant to the female one which produced them. Aristotle and Pliny, among the ancients, and Dr. Walker among the moderns, considered that the mistletoe was propagated by the excrements of the birds, which had fed on the berries; supposing that the heat of the stomach, and the process of digestion, were necessary to prepare the seeds for vegetation. Ray first suggested the idea of trying by experiment whether the seed would vegetate without passing

through the body of a bird; and, at his suggestion, Mr. Doody, an apothecary of London, inserted a seed of the mistletoe into the bark of a white poplar tree, which grew in his garden, with complete success. This, Professor Martin observes, has been since done by many persons, both by rubbing the berries on the smooth bark of various trees, and by inserting them in a cleft, or in a small hole bored on purpose, which was the mode adopted by Doody. Mr. Baxter of the Oxford Botanic Garden, in the spring of 1833, rubbed nine mistletoe seeds on the smooth bark of an apple tree, all of which germinated: two produced only one radicle each, six produced two radicles each, and one produced three; from which it follows, that two radicles are more common than one in the seeds of this plant. There are as many embryos as radicles.

The celebrated Du Hamel, arguing that the seeds of the mistletoe, like the seeds of other plants, would germinate anywhere, provided they had a suitable degree of humidity, made them sprout not only on the barks of different kinds of living trees, but on dead branches, on bricks, tiles, stones, the ground, &c. But, though they germinated in such situations, they did not live any time, except on the bark of living trees. M. Du Trochet made seeds of the mistletoe germinate on the two sides of the frame of a window, and in both cases the radicles directed themselves towards the interior of the room, as if in quest of darkness. (See Richard's Elements of Botany; and Baxter's Brit. Flowering Plants, art.

Viscum.) The first indication of germination is the appearance of one or more radicles, like the sucker of a house fly, but larger; as at hi, in fig. 772., which are front views, and at kl in the same figure, which are side views, taken from mistletoe berries, which were stuck on the upright trunk of a cherry tree in our garden at Bayswater, in March, 1836, and germinated there, as they appeared on the 20th of May of the same year. When the white, viscous, pulpy matter of the mistletoe berry is removed, the kernel, or seed, appears of a greenish colour, and flat; sometimes oval, at other times triangular,

and at other times of various forms. In fig. 772., a is the male blossom magnified; b, the female blossom magnified; d, a berry cut through, transversely; e, a seed divided vertically, showing the two embryos; g, the embryo magnified; h, the two embryos, with the two radicles germinating; i, a single radicle; k, a side view, or section, of the two radicles; and, a side view, or section, of the single radicle.

It is remarked by Du Hamel, that, when the form of the seed is oval, generally one radicle only is protruded; but, when it is triangular or irregular, 2, 3, or more, appear. It is singular, that, while the radicle of almost all other plants descends, this is not the case with the mistletoe; the young root of which at first rises up, and then bends over till it reaches the body of the substance to which the seed has been attached, as at k and 1, fig. 772. Having