Viscum Album. Nat. ord., Loranthaceae.

Fig. - Engl. Bot., t. 1470.

English name. - Mistletoe.

Habitat. - Parasitic on many trees, especially on the apple. Extending over the whole of temperate Europe. Common in Southern and especially Western England.

Flowering time. - Spring.

Parts employed. - Leaves and berries in equal quantities.

Characters. - Leaves entire, varying from narrow oblong to nearly obovate, thick and fleshy, and always obtuse. Berry white, semi-transparent, enclosing a single seed, surrounded by a very glutinous pulp.

Time for collecting. - When the berries are ripe.

Reference to Horn. Proving. - A notice will be found in Hale's New Remedies; there is also a good deal of clinical experience in Brit. Journ. Horn., xxii., and M. H. Rev., xii. and xvii.

Preparation. - Tincture, corresponding in alcoholic strength with proof spirit. This tincture is difficult to make, owing to the viscidity of its sap; hence the following modification of the usual process must be had recourse to:-

Cut the leaves small, pass through the sausage-machine, then bruise and pass through the machine a second time. Mash up the berries and bruised leaves, and again pound and pass through the machine. Then add to the magma an equal bulk of finely-powdered glass. Mix well together, and pack carefully in the percolator in thin layers of about 1/2 inch or 3/4 inch in thickness, adding a little finely-powdered glass between each, and shaking it well into the interspaces. Proceed in other respects as usual in the case of fresh plants.