VI'SCUM *. Linnean Class and Order. DIE CIA, TETRA'NDRIA. Natural Order. LORA'NTHEE, Rich. and Juss.-Lind. Syn. p. 133.; Introd. to Nat. Syst. p. 208.-Rich. by Macgillv. p. 461. GEN. CHAR. Barren Flowers (fig. 1.); Calyx obsolete. Corolla of one petal, in 4 deep, egg-shaped, pointed, equal segments. Filaments none. Anthers 4, egg-shaped, compressed, sessile on the base of each segment of the corolla, all over pitted, or cellular. Fertile Flowers (fig. 2.); Calyx a slight border. Corolla of 4, egg-shaped, equal, deciduous petals. Germen inferior, egg-shaped, crowned with the calyx. Style none. Stigma blunt. Berry globular, smooth, juicy, viscid, of one cell. Seed one, heart-shaped, compressed. Embryos one or two, sometimes three, (fig. 4.) One species British. VI'SCUM A'LBUM. White, or Common Misseltoe. Missel. SPEC. CHAR. Leaves inversely egg-spear-shaped, blunt. Stem forked, with sessile, intermediate heads, of about five flowers. Eng. Bot. t. 1470.-Woodv. Med. Bot. Suppl. t. 270.-Sm. Fl. Brit. v. iii. p. 1074.-Eng. Fl. v. iv. p. 236.-With. (7th ed.) v. ii. p. 240.-Lind. Syn. p. 133.-Hook. Br. Fl. p. 434.-Gray's Nat. Arr. v. ii. p. 492.-Sibth. Fl. Oxon. p. 63.-Abbot's Fl. Bedf. p. 214.-Purt. Mid. Fl. v. ii. p. 474.-Relh. Fl. Cant. p. 406.-Hook. Fl. Scot. p. 288.-Walk. Fl. Oxf. p. 295.-Viscum, Ray's Syn. p. 464.-Johnson's Gerarde, 1350. LOCALITIES.-Parasitical on trees, especially on the Apple tree (Pyrus Malus), the Hawthorn (Mespilus Oxyacanta), the Lime (Tilia Europaea), the Maple (Acer Campestre), the Ash (Fraxinus Excelsior), the Poplar, and the Willow: rarely on the Oak.-Common in Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, and Worcestershire, both in orchards and hedge-row fruit trees.-Rare in Oxfordshire.-Near Bland's Court. Dr. SIBTHORP.-On old Apple trees at Ib-ston, near Stokenchurch. 1824. W. B.-Abundant at Appleton, Berks, particularly on Willows. Miss HOSKINS.-In Badminton Park, Gloucestershire, on the Hawthorn, the Crab, and the Maple, in great abundance. Mr. J. ROBINSON, Gardener, Wadham College.-G. W. SANDYs, Esq. of Pembroke College, observed it on a Beech tree, in Gloucestershire, 1832.-Left hand side of the road between High Wycombe and West Wycombe, on the Hawthorn, the Whitethorn (Prunus Spinosa), and the Crab, and on Apple trees, at Long Wick, Bucks. Mr. P. B. AYRES. April, 1833. Shrub.-Flowers in April and May. Root woody, thick, incorporated deeply with the wood of the tree on which it grows. Stem bushy, about a foot or 18 inches high, very much branched, repeatedly forked (dichotomous), jointed, round, smooth, and even, of a pale yellowish green colour. Leaves nearly the same colour as the stem, opposite, tongue-shaped, from an inch and a half to 24 inches long, very entire, with parallel ribs, smooth, rigid, almost woody, evergreen. Flowers yellowish green, in small, axillary heads, about 3 or 5 in each head. Berries globu A. A branch of a barren plant.-B. Ditto of a fertile one.-Fig. 1. A stamenbearing Corolla. Fig. 2. A pistil-bearing ditto.-Fig. 3. A Berry cut through transversely.Fig. 4. A Seed divided vertically, showing the double embryo.Fig. 5. An Embryo, magnified.-Fig. 6. A Seed after it has germinated, showing the manner in which it produces the radicles, and attaches them to the bark. * From the Eolic Biskos, tenacious; from the adhesive property of the berries, or plant. WITHERING. ternally. Seed with from one to three Embryos t. Some curious experiments are recorded by M. RICHARD, in his Elements of Botany, as having been made on the germination of the seed of the Misseltoe. I am indebted to M. PARIGOT, B. A. of the University of Ghent, for the following observations, which are extracted chiefly from the above-named work. "In opposition to the law of the tendency of roots towards the earth's centre, the Misseltoe, in common with some other parasitic plants, shoots out its radicle in whatever position chance places it. Thus, when the seed, which is enveloped with a thick and clammy gluten, happens to fix itself (or, as is often the case, is placed by the Missel Thrush, Turdus viscivorus of LINN., in the act of cleaning its bill from the glutinous seed) on the under part of a branch, the radicle, which is a kind of tubercle hollowed out like a French-horn, directs itself upwards. In short, in whatever position the seed may be fixed to the branch, the radicle always directs itself perpendicularly to the axis of the branch. The radicle presents also another unvarying tendency, which is, that of avoiding the light. Experiments have been made by M. DUTROCHET, in which this seed, which finds its first nutriment in the gluten that envelopes it, was made to germinate on the two sides of the panes of a window, in both cases the radicles directed themselves towards the interior of the room, as if in quest of darkness."-No art has yet made this plant take root in the earth; but if the berries, when fully ripe, are rubbed on the smooth bark of almost any tree, but especially the Apple or the Crab, they will adhere closely, and produce plants the following Winter. Several plants, in different stages of growth, all of which have been produced by this method, are now growing on Apple trees in the Oxford Botanic Garden. The berries, when boiled with a small portion of vegetable oil, serve to make the best birdlime. It was formerly in great repute as a remedy for epileptic and other complaints, but it is now disregarded. It was one of those plants which were held sacred by the Druids, who ordained that it should be cut with a golden knife, and only by the Priest, who was to be clothed in white, and the plant received on a white napkin, when the moon was six days old. This ceremony was accompanied by the sacrifice of two white bulls. Thus consecrated, Misseltoe was considered an antidote to poisons, and a preventative of all the various ills of Pandora's box -In the Christmas ceremony of the bush may be yet recognized a slight vestige of the importance once attached to this peculiar shrub. The LORA'NTHEE are dicotyledonous, parasitical herbaceous plants, with opposite, veinless, fleshy Leaves, without stipula. The Flowers are often monoecious, (sometimes dioecious,) axillary or terminal, solitary, corymbose, or spiked. The Calyx is superior, with 2 bractea at the base. The Corolla is composed of from 4 to 8 Petals, which are more or less united at the base. The Stamens are of the same number as the petals, and opposite to them. The Ovary is 1-celled: the Ovule pendulous: the Style one or none: the Stigma simple. The Fruit is succulent, and 1-celled. The Seed is solitary and pendulous: the Testa membranous: the Embryo cylindical, longer than the fleshy Albumen: and the Radicle is naked, club-shaped, and superior.LINDLEY and RICHARD. + Out of nine seeds which I rubbed on the smooth bark of an Apple tree in the Botanic Garden, this Spring (1833), and left there to germinate, two produced only one radicle each; six produced two radicles each, and one produced three. It appears, from this experiment, that two is the most common number of radicles produced by each seed of this curious plant.-See figs. 4 & 6. |