Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 January 1884 — Mistletoe. [ARTICLE]

Mistletoe.

The cultivation of this singular parasitic shrub for ornamental purposes is recommended in foreign papers, and young trees with Mistletoe growing on them are offered for sale in English nurseries. It is generally found on the branches of apple trees, but is not very particular in this respect, and takes its habitation also on different other trees. It may be raised from seed placed in the crevices of the bark of young, healthy branches; or it may be propagated by grafting; in which case, a piece with a portion of the bark of the tree from which it is taken has to be cut with it, and firmly secured to the new position. The European species is larger and rather more ornamental than our native kind, for which reason the latter might not prove a success for exclusively ornamental purposes; but if some enterprising florist should succeed in raising Mistletoe in neat hanging-baskets, which might be hung ingeniously over doors and archways under which young people of both sexes have to pass"— and older ones, too, for that matter—there might spring up quite a demand for the “novelty” about Christmas-time. ; j