/ 4 °J [ 1470 ]
VISCUM album.
Misseltoe.
DIOECIA Tetrmdria.
G e n . Ch a r , Male, Cal. none. Petals 4 , dilated and
cohering at their base, resembling a calyx. Anther ce
sessile, attached to the petals.
Female, Cal. a slight border. Pet. 4 , dilated at the
base. Style none. Berry inferior, with 1 seed.
S pec. Ch a r . Leaves lanceolate, obtuse. Stem forked;
with axillary heads of flowers.
S y n . Viscum album. Linn. Sp. PI. 1451. Sm. FI.
B rit. 10 7 4 . IJuds. 4 3 1 . With. 2 0 3 . Hull. 2 2 0 .
Relh. 3 8 8 . Sibth. 6 3 . Abbot. 2 1 4 . M ill. Illustr.
t. 87. Woodv. Suppl. t. 2 70.
Viscum. Rail Syn. 4 6 4 .
F r e q u e n t l y to be observed on the branches of old applet
trees, hawthorns, lime-trees, oaks, &c., where it grows para-
sitically, forming large smooth pale-green tufts, most conspicuous
in winter, when they assume a yellowish hue.
Stems divaricated, round, repeatedly forked. Leaves opposite,
tongue-shaped, entire, rigid, smooth, permanent. Flowers
in little axillary heads, male and female on separate plants,
yellowish. Antherae singularly punctate. Berry globose,
white, semi-transparent, full of sweetish very viscid pulp, enclosing
1 seed. Of these berries bird-lime is made. The
Misseltoe is celebrated in story as the sacred plant of the
Druids, and the golden bough of Virgil, which was ^Eneas's
passport to the infernal regions. From some relics of such
antient' superstitions it is used, along with holly boughs, to
dress up churches and houses at Christmas. In polite life if;
is as obsolete as some better things, and left to the kitchen.
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