Evening star., 1915-12-12

| tion periods. When ripe, the seed is
inclosed in clear sticky pulp covered
by tough. semi-transparent skin.
which nearly all the world knows as
the mistletoe berry 1t is worthy of
note that the sticky pulp of the berry
| Of the European mistletoe is used in
the preparation of bird lime. In the
American berry the pulp is to some eX-
tent eaten by birds. and mocking birds.
cedar birds or cedar waX-wings, vari-
Gus sparrows, cardinals and robins. eat
the berries, bringing about wide dis
tribution of the seeds. AS berries be-
come overripe and soft they fall from
the mistletoe sprig and stick to other
branches of the tree or to the branches
of other trees. and there they germi-
nate, so that many trees become over
grown with mistletoe.
.Mistletoe will live as long as the tree
which feeds it. In the case of the Eu-
ropean mistletoe its sinkers or roots
are found extending through sixty or
seventy rings of annual growth. and
oaks centuries old have been infected
with mistletoe since they We're young
trees, yet in their case the injection
has not spread so as to cut short the
life of the tree. The sinker or root
of the mistletoe has secreted IN II
fluid which dissolves the wood in which
lit is burying itself. but it seeks points
of little resistance, usually choosing
the young branches whose protective
covering is thinner, where the breath
ing pores are numerous and where the
buds offer an easy point of attack
There is a large holiday trade in
mistletoe. Countless packages are sent.
through the mails. Choice and eX-'I
pensive grades of mistletoe are handled ,
by southern florist supply firms. only
well berried shrubs are used IN TINS
trade and these are usually Grated, =
with great care to insure against shat,
tering and freezing in transit. Mistle-,
toe is retailed in many northern cities,
and to some extent in Washington by
grocers and market men. good deal, !
of southern mistletoe is shipped north. !
by dealers in general merchandise. To
them the mistletoe is brought in by
the country people and it's value taken |,
in trade. Then it is packed in barrels .
or crates and shipped to northern COM {,
mission houses Each Christmas Wash
ington uses much more mistletoe than
is brought out of the woods in the =
neighbor counties of the capital.
There is. no way of accounting for
the many myths associated with mlstie-h
toe. The Druids of Britain looked upon.
it as something holy. To them the"
oak tree had strong religious sig"
njficance, and seeing this curious plant
growing out of the oak they conceived.
that it was the spirit or the soul of,
the oak In this way it is supposed
that the Druids came to regard the
mistletoe as symbol of life, and they
therefore treated 1t with manifest rev.
erepce and gave it a prominent place
have it that the Druids held mistletoe,
as sacred to Fraya, the goddess of love.
and that this is how il came to be as,
sociated with love-ma king and kissing
Another writer says that in early Eng
land mistletoe, was more often found
upon the apple trees than upon,
the oaks, and that when a branch OF
the pretty parasite did appear upon an,
oak the Druids thought that God had
selected that particular oak as his own
and they thereupon paid distinction to
that oak. The story goes that they
would cut off the mistletoe with mucn.t
ceremony and sacrifice two white bulls
as one feature of the celebration. There
is no end to the traditions that have :
been written about the mistletoe. =
The old herbalists, the forerunners, :
Of the physician. regarded the mistle-,
toe as thing having remarkable ther-,,
apeutic properties. It was good for y
epilepsy and various convulsive dis
1t was also a charm. against
disease.