Country Life
MISTLETOE HOSTS.
Several curiosities of nature that have just come to my notice may be worth recording, though they may be common- places to local doctors or professors : one of these comes from the West. During a short drive one morning in Herefordshire I saw mistletoe growing in very unusual hosts. One very flourishing bunch was on a sycamore, a youngish tree growing beside the road. The plant looked very flourishing ; but a local observer with a singularly true eye both for what is beautiful and curious in nature has found a good reason why the sycamore is unpopular with this parasite (or epiphyte). The sycamore has a peculiar gift of so spreading its wide and numerous leaves—all eager to seek the sun—that it makes—not " a sunshine in a shady place "—but a shade in an else sunny place. The result is that the mistletoe will be of no value for Christmas decoration for it will have lost all its leaves, which demand sun for their perfect health.
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