Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1892-02-24
Ho.c Mrstreroe is Generated.


Everybody knows well the looks of
those pale yellowish leaves, thick, stiff,
and leathery, which seem TO betoken in
their very appearance the uncanny mode
of life of the plant that bears them. But
it is not everybody that knows equally
well the little inconscicuous greenish,
flowers that precede and produce the ber-
ries-howers of two sexes, often separate
" borne on distinct plants, the wee little
males with no trace of petals, while the
females still rctain some last relic of
their high estate (when they were hand
some honeysuckles) in the shape of four
tiny scale like flower leaves, so inconspi
cuous that one needs to look close indeed
with a magnifying glass to detect their
presence Yet there they are, TO this day,
degraded petals, to prove the fall of the
mistletoe, an outward and visible sign Of
It's long course of degeneracy. In the
centre of these fertile blossoms stand
wee sticky column, the sensitive surface
of the ovary; small flies and other un-
considered rifiraif act as 90 betweens to
convey the pollen from the male flowers
TO their spinster sisters. A few specks of
honey dotted about on the cups serve to
reward their labor and attract their at
lention. In search of it, the flies smear
themselves over with golden grains on
the petaless flowers, which they rub off
again unconsciously on the petalless flow
ers, oil the sticky surface of the female
ovaries. This sets up qualification. As
soon as the feriiliziDg powder has quick
ened the embryo within, fruit grows
out apace-the familiar semi-transparent
and mysterious looking berry of our
Christmas mistletoe. Ever part of this
strange plant is full of oddity and no
part more so than these wonderful berries.
They are white, so as to attract the eye
of friendly birds and they are filled
with very adhesive and sticky pulp,
which sticks like glue 10 whatever touch
es it. Indeed, the Latin name Of the
plant, 'yiscum, and the French one 'gul,'
both have reference TO this gummy pecu-
liarity and the adjective 'vscid' itself
literally like mistletoe' Bird lime Ccai-
led 'glu' in French is prepared from the
berries. The pulp that yields it sur
rounds single solitary seed, for whose
sake the whole mechanism has been de-
veloped by the parent plant. And this
is the object subserved in the shrubs
economy by the sticky material. Mistle-
toe berries are much sought after by sun
dry fruit eating birds, but especially by
the missel thrush, which owes both its
common English name and its scientific
appellation of 'Thurdus viscivorus TO its
marked affection for this mystic food
Now, as the bird eats the berries, it gets
the seed entangled on its feet and bill by
the sticky surroundings; and then flying
away to another tree, il gets rid of them
in turn by rubbing them off sideways in
fork of the branches. That happens TO
be the precise spot that best suits the
young mistletoe as place for sprouting
in. If fell on the ground underneath,
it would be unable to maintain itself
without the aid of post but rubbed off
on a poplar or apple tree, where the
missel thrush most often carries il in
search of more berries, it bores its way
quickly into the very tissues Of lis victim,
and begins to suck its blood daily for its
own advantage, after the hereditary hab-
it of It's wicked kind.