The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1905-02-15


NO plant has ever aroused so many
kinds Of interest as the mistletoe.
That strange shrub is a wonder From
every point Of view it teens with cur.
iosity. It's parasitic mode Of growth.
its paradoxical greonness among the
bare boughs Of winter It's pale and
ghostiy berries. its sticky s~uit. filled
with viscid birdlime. have ali aroused
profound attention from the very earii-
est ages.
Ghc mistletoe Is a woody shrub. with
yellowish green leaves which special
~ affects the branches Of apple trees.
pears and poplars. And this the man
ner Of the generation Of misUetoes
The young seedlings sprout on
branch os their involuntary hest
where the seed has been carried by
hrds. Instead Of roofing themselves
however. Ike groundiag plants. by
small hbrous rootlets, they fasten by
sort OF sucker-lile process 70 the
tissues Of the tree on which they feed
ana penetrating its bark to the living
layer just beneath, suck up elaborated
sap from the veins of their victim
Thus they live at the expense OF the
tree whose food they appropriate. and
when many of them tegethcr infest
single tree. they succeet in strassiins
and choking the foliage of their un-
happy host.
Mlsuetoe berries are much sought
after by sundry fruiteating birds but
especially by the mistle thrush AS
tho bird eats the berries, it gets the
seeds entangled on its feet and bin By
tie sticky surroundings, and then
fiying away to another tree. it gets ria
Of them in turn by rubbing them side
ways on a fork of the branch That
happens to be the precise spot that
lest suits the yonng mistletoe as a
place for sprouting it. If it fell onto
the ground beneath it would be unable
TO maintsin itself
Mares tells us that "The custom
lurkst and most faithfully preserv-
ed was the hanging up of bunch Of
nistletoe In the kitchen or servants
hail, witA the charm attached to it
that the maid who was not kissed
under it at Christmas would not be
married that year and still the CLAM
our of love and kisses hangs about
the clear-berried bash.
This plant was Of old held to be so
sacred that the arch-Druid dared not
sever it from the tree with anything
less costly than a golden sickle The
people went forth in procession 70
gather t. singing in unison Prayer
was made to Isminsul. and homage
was done 90 the oaks that harbored
the sacred plant, before a twig Of "
was cut, but the maidens Of the tenn
Pic or by the chief among the priests.
The mistletie. growing upon an oak
was the only species to which the
Druids did honor but in folhmedi-
cine the mistletoe that Is parasite
upon crab, lime, and pear tree was
equally efficacious not only as a rem
edy in epileptic cases. but In all other
convulsive disorders. Says Colbatch,
"rhis faire plant must have been
made by God for further and more
noble purposes than barely to feede
thrushes or meerly to hang up super
stitiouslie in houses to dryye away
evil spirits" In an old number Of the
Gentieman's Magazine is entombed
and lost a suggestion that the mis-.
tletoe a magical shrubb' apears to be
the Forbidden Tree in the middle of
the Trees of Eden: for in the Edda
the Mistletoe is said to be Balder's
death. who yet perished threw Blind
ness and a woman" Alas poor Bald
err
Celts and Goth alike venerated this
"Gerry Tree"-~by the way this is the
Welsh name for it-aboul the coming
of the sun near to the winter solstice.
and Christie infers--1sO1-by Virglrs
comparison Of the Golden Bough to
The mistletoe that the use OF this
plant was not unknown among the re-
ligicus ceremonies OF thc ancients es.
pccially the Greeks.