Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/68

 M I S

M I S

often the open end is forced away from its hold on the bark by the refinance, and the young plant dies. Thofe fhoots which are fingle from fingle feeds are ofteneft deftroy'd at this juncture, for they have fingly the force of the whole feed to ftruggle againft, and when they fucceed, ufually raife it up, and keep it on their extremity ; but where the fame feed fends three or four radicles, thefe all ftruggle fo many different ways to rife, and the hulk of the feed is ufually torn, by their efforts, into three or four pieces; and every radicle carrying its portion on the top, becomes a diftin£t plant. It might feem from this, that the feminal lobes were neceffary to the growth of the young plant ; but this is not the cafe, for if the {talks of the feveral radicles are cut off while they adhere to the feed, they thrive not at all the worfe for it.

It is a very fingular circumftance in this plant, that its feeds pro- duce fingly feveral young plants. No other vegetable has this property. 'Tis true, indeed, that two young hazels have been feen to rife from the fame nut -, but then we know very well, that nuts have frequently double kernels in the fame fhell ; but here the feed is contained fingly in a berry, and, to all examination, appears of a fimple uniform ftructure, tho' it doubtlefs is compofed according to the number of young plants it will produce, of three, four,- or more perfect feeds. When the young plant of the Mijletoe feed has freed itfclf from the hulk at its end, and raifed itfelf upright, it is found ter- minated at the end by a fort of button, like that of other young moots, which contain the leaves. This button ftands, however, unalter'd al! the firft year, and fometimes all the fecond j in the fpring following there appear from the button two leaves, and in the alse of thefe leaves there are feen two other buttons ; and afterwards there iffue from thefe buttons branches terminated ufually by two, but fometimes by three leaves. Thefe are the produce of the third or fourth year ; all the fucceediug years there are new buttons formed in the ake of the leaves, and the branches from thefe expand them- felves fo regularly, that very frequently the whole fhrub is of a regularly round figure.

The old leaves become yellow, and fall off, and there come no new ones in their places, fo that the old (talks, and confe- quently the whole inner part of the plant is naked, and the leaves are only found on the circumference growing on the young branches.

It is a remarkable obfervation, that every button of the Mijle- toe contains the rudiments of three young branches, and hence every knot ought to be furnifned with fix branches ; and this would ever be the cafe, but that feveral of the young branches die either before, or fooii after their emerging from the but- ton.

Among the other fingularities of this plant, it is alfo worthy obfervation, that its ftalks have not that tendency natural to thofeofallotherplants, of rifing directly upwards ; fori!" itgrow on the under part of a branch of a tree, it fhoots as regularly downwards, as it does upwards when it grows from the other fide, and this without feeming at all to fuffer by it, or to have any inclination to turn upwards.

Some of the old authors have faid, that the Mijletoe kept its leaves all the winter, when it grew on an ever-green tree, but that when the leaves fell from the tree it grew on, its leaves fell alfo ; but this is erroneous, Mijletoe holding its leaves all the year, on whatever tree it grows,, and ftanding unhurt in the fevereft winters.

Mijletoe will grow on all kinds of trees ; but.it does not grow on all with the fame ftrength and vigour. The pear* the ap- ple, the white thorn, and the lime, are trees it grows on very fuccefsfully. The oak, the hazel, and the juniper, are very ftarving for it. Mr. Du Hamel could never make it fucceed by fowing on the laft of thefe trees ; but it has fometimes been found naturally propagated on it, tho' in a ffarving condition. It will alfo grow on annual plants, but on thefe it never can come to any height, as their ftalks perifhing at the approach of winter, the Mijletoe perifhes with them. Mr. Du Hamel took great pains to fow and try to raife it on the ground, and fucceeded fo well as to make the feeds moot, and their radicles grow to fome length ; but finding no proper hold to fix them- felves upon, they all pcrifhed ; whence it feems that this is abfolutely a parafitical fhrub, and can grow no where but on fome other tree.

The Mijletoe is covered with two barks, an external thin one of a greenifh colour, and fomewhat wrinkled and granulated ; and under this with a much thicker, of a paler green, and fomewhat granulated, and inter fperfed with woody fibres. Under this lies the wood, which, when dry, is very hard, but has no appearance of any grain, and cuts with equal eafe in a longitudinal or tranfverfe direction. The ftalk between every two knots is perfectly ftrait, but at the knot it takes great inflections. Each of thefe pieces of the ftalk in fome meafure reprefents the tibia of the human leg, being a little larger at one end than at the other, and always much fmaller in the middle than at either extremity. It joins the fucceeding ftalk not in the common manner of vegetables, but by a fort of ar- ticulation, and has a fort of epiphyfes like the bones. The analogy is carried alfo yet farther, in that as in young animals the epiphyfes of the bones are all foft and tender, but harden in

older ones ; fo in this plant the young branches feparate eafify at their articulations, but in the old ones thefe are as hard as any other part of the ftalk.

The leaves of Mijletoe are thick without being fucculent, their pedicle is very fhort, and there run from it four or fix longi- tudinal ribs, which reach the outer end of the leaf without making any obfervable ramifications.

Mijletoe is a very vigorous and lively plant, and is one of thofe to which nature has allotted males and females in diftinct plants of the fame fpecies, Authors however are not perfectly a- greed as to the manner of this. Pliny abfolutely affirms, that there are two forts of Mijletoe, the one which bears fruit, and the other which never does. And Mr. Edmund Barrell great- ly confirms this opinion by his own obfervation, giving an account that he raifed four plants of Miptoe from feeds, two of which bore fruit, but the other two only flowers. Mr. Tournefort, Linnseus, and Boerhaave, however, affirm, that the flowers and fruit are not produced in different plants, but on the different branches of the fame individual. The matter thus remained doubtful till Mr. Du Hamel determined to en- quire thoroughly into the truth ; and his obfervations wholly confirmed thofe of the antients, and of Mr. Barrell. Nay, he adds, that the whole habit of the male and female plants of the Mijletoe is fo different, that they areeafily known afun- der, without having recourfe to their flowers, or fruit \ and he never found, in all his obfervations, fo much as a fingle flower on a female plant, or a fingle berry on a male one. The buds which contain the male flowers of Mijletoe are rounder than thofe which contain the female flowers,, or the embryo fruit, and are three times as large. The buds (hew themfelves diftindtly on the brandies in autumn, and in De- cember they are of a confiderabie fize, tho' not at all in- clined to open ; and the female plants are yet full of the ber- ries of the former year. The male buds ufually grow three and three on the fame pedicle, and they open in February or the beginning of March. Their flower is of one regular piece, forming a fort of open bell ; it is cut into four parts, the notches going down to the middle of the flower, and the fegments being fo many half ovals. There are four thick o- val bodies, or four granulated (hoots which are attached to the inner part of the bell, and which rife over its lips ; they are greenifh at firft, but they afterwards become yellow j thefe are full of an extremely fine powder : Thefe are truly the ftamina of the Mijletoe? and that part of them which to the naked eye appears granulated, is by the mierofcope found to be formed into a multitude of flight cavities, like thofe of the morel. The flowers are placed in clutters foe or {even to- gether^ either in the alae of the branches^ or at their extre- mities j and having done their office, they fall off in May. The female plants have their flowers in the fame places, but thefe have only three or four at a joint ; they open at the fame time that the male flowers do, on the other plants ; When thefe flowers are perfectly opened,- we fee the embryo* fruit crowned with four petals, which are planted in a fort of cleft that runs all round the fruit, and which becomes more and more diftinguifhable as the fruit grows larger. Thefe petals are at firft united at their tops, and form a fort of cone, but they foon after open and fhew the figure of an antique crown j and there is then feen in the middle a fort of rough eminence granulated like the peel of an orange, and of a brownifh colour. That part of the fruit which is below the infertion of the petals grows much fafter than that which is above them, fo that when thefe are grown to a con- fiderable fize, the petals feem placed merely upon them. By the beginning of June almoft all the petals are fallen, but the four infertions remain however very diftingui (liable on the berry ; and we may obferve on their tops, as they are now about as big as a grain of hempfeed, a brown eminence which is the remains of the rough protuberance contained within the petals ; and, on cutting them, the feed is found in the middle, of a greenifh colour ; the berries continue growing all July and Auguft, and are ripe in September or October. Mem.; Acad. Par. 1740. MISOPTOCHOS, the Beggar-hater, an affefted name giveri by fome to the gout, a difeafe that feldom invades the poor or induftrious. MISSA, in the church of Rome. See the article Mass, Cyd. MLSSEL-Bi?-d, in zoology, the common Englifh name of the larger fpecies of thrufh, called alfo thz Jhrite, and by authors the turdus vifcivorus major. It is much larger than any o- ther of the thrufh-kind. Its legs and feet are yellow ; its head of a brownifh lead colour; and its back, tail, and rump, of the fame colour, with an admixture of yellow; but in the fum- mer months it a little changes its colour, and becomes more grey or of the colour of unripe pickled olives ; its throat, breaft and belly, are all variegated with black fpots ; the mid- dle of its belly whitifh, and the upper part of its breaft and part of its fides and the under feathers of its tail yellowifh. Rafs. Ornithol. p. 138.

It ufually is feen on the top branches of tall oaks, elms, and other high trees, and fings very fweetly. It remains the whole year with us, and flies fingly, except with its female. It is^ the belt of all the kind for the table.

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