Evening star., 1915-12-12
THE, NIISTLET TOE, A PARASITE,
GROWS ON VARIETY OF TREES

6NHE mistletoe season is at hand'
and a great many thoughts are
. being given to it and great
many references, humorous, semi-hu-
morous and sentimental, are being
made to it Many boughs, branches ana
pendants of this beautiful and mys-
terious plant are being severed from
the oaks and other trees and now hans
or are being made ready to hang from
chandeliers. gas jets, door jambs or
other places where women and young
girls may pass beneath 1t.
A great deal has been learned about
mistletoe by the botanists. and YET
there is much about the curious plant
which the wisest men do not know.
The variety with which washington
peopIe are acquainted is parasite, YET
it is not altogether parasite.
William L. Bray, an investigator in
forest pathology for the Department OF
Agriculture, has written TINS;
"The plant is a parasite. 1t fastens
itself upon it's host, the tree, penetrates
its tissue and draws nourishment from
it, deforming it and sapping its VI
tality. Yet the mistletoe is green,
leafy plant: that is, it possesses the
green color to normal vegetation Some
Of the tropical species of mistletoe bear
leaves as large as those of the Ameri-
can elm.
."The presence of green leaves indi-
Gates that the mistletoe has the power,
which independent green plants. every
where possess. of constructing organic
foodstuffs. such as s.aren, rSn SH, Sinxid ia and
water-utilizing sunlight as the source
of energy in the process. 1t ls' there-
fore, only partly parasite SO 1aI as
dependence upon a host for FOOD is
concerned, but apparently none the less
harmful on that account. it secures
from its host only what the nornal
shrubbery plant derives from the SOIL,
namely. water and certain heeesaiS
mineral constituents.
Imagine grapevine or trumpet
creeper, while retaining It's Ipilase; 70
sever connection with the SOL anu TO
thrust rootlike outgrowths INTO tne
body of the tree to which 1t cllngs, IN
order to absorb from the tree what pc
fore it absorbed from the soil THIS
would represent the relation "hich
mistletoe sustains to it's host.
\ X
It is interesting to note that there
are points of difference between the
American mistletoe and the European
mistletoe, to which such a wealth OF
legend and romance attaches. But the
points of difference are not important,
and the American is very like the Eu-
ropean mistletoe in it's appearance and
Its habits of life. The name "mistle-
toe" was long ago applied to the mys-
ter1ouS parasitic European shrub to
which centuries later Linnaeus gave
the name viscum album. Since that
time related species have been found
In. nearly all parts of the world, espe-
cially in the warm countries. The fam
lily of mistletoes is now known to be a
large one, embracing more than six
hundred species 1t has been written
that in the course of botanical ex-
plorations in the western hemisphere
numerous representatives of the fam
lily were found. and among them was
one which SO closely resembled the
original mistletoe that 1t was given
the generic name of viscum, with the
specific designation of "fiavescens." and
one early botanical explorer. the cele-
brated Thomas Walter. cay I'd the