CHRISTMAS NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17348, 20 December 1919, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHRISTMAS NATURE NOTES.

BY. J. DRCMMOND, P.L.S., F.Z.S.

I Bright colours fit into the setting of a joyous season, and New Zealand's two most notable summer flowers, the pohutukawa and the scarlet mistletoe, ar consistent with Christmas sentiments and meditations. Both, according-to the floral time-table, should bloom throughout December and January. The dates are not strictly observed, but it -is in a very unusual season that they are not at their best in Christmas week. Except for this nappy fact, they have no particular sentimental or traditional associations. The Ne? S ZeaT a nS et r, b - be ! en ™»>4nced into new /.ealand, but in only a few daces so few that kissing under it is no ? general here, and young people do not kiw "der the scarlet mistletoe. " Perhaps it is cor red to say that they do not kiss under ceih2 r L tha th % kiss - under ths ba ™ them g 3D;srwhere elße Jit «-afl 'one to

; ? English mistletoe— may be called English without offending susceptibility, as it is a native of neither Scotland nor Ireland—is ? f mystic - plant - It is be--4™ « *V?, name » from *«>* Anglo•£dftfiT?tl?i" ami ? to r gloom, teolfeet tradition » that originaffy.it was a tall, JhTwT,? f ? r l St tree ' that ifc W3S for £(£d- ? - the . cross and hft t ever since «h™h" uT Xt v- M been a Parasitical Reference, stafe that it was venerated by. the ancient. Druids, and that they used it an their sacrificial ceremonies, but actual association with Druidical traditions is doubtful The origin of the custom of hanging it from ceilings at Christmas time and stealing kisses under it has-not! been traced. A. utilitarian age has discredited the mistletoe's tradition, But has' not destroyed its popularity .in the Old Country. It is still grafted on to apple trees and oats, an is sold in London shops. Most ot the London supplies apparently come from the Apple orchards of Herefordshire, but they are supplemented : from France. A resident "of Dunedin some years ago tried to cultivate the scarlet mistletoe in' his garden in the same way ? as the- English mistletoe is grafted. Following the English plan, he collected berries of the. plant and placed them in cracks on th e branches of ins apple trees, in slits in the bark and in clay or mud attached to the trunks, but he did not meet with a single success.

The English mistletoe and tie scarlet mistletoe belong to the same family.' It I bears a Latin name, which means the ■ thong-flowers, and which is very' appropriate to the long, narrow, peculiar flowers -nf'the scarlet mistletoe.- The 600 members of the family hav e rib economical value whatever, and the English mistletoe is the only one with any general repute. New Zealand is much richer in mistletoes than the Old Country is; it'has about ten species, and England has only one, which is shared by other countries: . New Zealand .has tw6" species belonging to the same- genus as tile English mistletoe. Viscum, and, consequently, closely related to it, but both are small leafless, and insignificant. The scarlet mistletoe, Loranthus Colensoi, perpetuates the name of th e Rev. W. Colenso, who is remembered by many early settlers and Maoris in the Auckland, Hawke's Bay, and Poverty Bay districts. An allied species also has scarlet flowers. Dark beech forests usually ar e selected by the scarlet mistletoe for its habitation. It there makes a strong contrast to the green foliage, which at a distance appears almost black. Mr. R. M. Laing, of Christchurch, states that it is seen at its TJeet when a visitor tows up a sluggish lowland stream like the Turakina, in the Rangitikei County, through beech forests'whose boughs meet overhead. .._.

Another species allied' to the scarlet mistletoe is found only in beech forests south and west of Ruapehu. "It forms large bushes in the tops of the trees," a botanist wrote in his enthusiastic description of it; " the blossoms are so abundant as almost to hide the foliage, and each bush, when in flower, looks like a flame. I believe that the largest bushes are quite 10 feet in diameter, and hushes six feet in diameter are common. As the blossoms fall the ground is sprinkled with petals. They are yellow at the. bases, but shade gradually through.-orange and scarlet to crimson, and even to carmine at the tips.'' It is' ; <oelieved- that th flowers of this uncommon mistletoe-nave a strange device for cross-fertilisation. In lowland forests in nearly all parte of New Zealand there is &: mistletoe with small green leaves, about one-eighth of an inch h-ng, and bright yellow oblong leaves. There am few .forests or isolated pieces of bush on the East Coast, from the Bay of Islands southwards, that does not possess this species. One of the strangest hosts itselects is the bush lawyer. The peach, the laburnum, and the acacia are among the introduced plants it favours. It ia spring flower, coming in with the yellow kowhai and the clematis, and it cannot be classed among the Christmas flowers. Its berries sometimes are roseate, but are a rich golden yellow: when ripe, and then they are very attractive to birds. Wood-pigeons, tuis, and beilbirds eat them, but blackbirds and song-thrushes in these days take the lion's share of them.

The seeds pass through the birds' digestive canals, and are glued to the branches of trees that will become th e parasites' hosts. Seeds, in their first stages of development, have been eeen lying on branches, firmly fixed to them and covered with a strong coating of transparent varnish. A green speck at the large end of a seed is the forerunner of the complete plant.. Later long stems are thrown out. These follow the course of the branch on which the seed found a restingplace. They even sometimes descend the trunk of the tree. Through suckers, fastened into the tree, the parasite sucks the nourishment it requires. The early leaves of this species are strongly tinged with reddish purple, or are paTe bronze margined with claret, and the branches are a rich warm brown. Another New Zealand mistletoe, Tupeiaantarctica, with small greenish-yellow flowers, is found usually on the beech in the South Island, and on the tarata in the north of Auckland. In Deans' Bush, near Chrisu:hurch, Mr. J. B. Armstrong found a scarlet mistletoe parasitical on the Tupeia mistletoe, and at Broken River a scarlet mistletoe which was parasitical oft a beech was found to be the subject of a parasitical attack in its turn by a Tupeia mistletoe*