(M251) The species of mistletoe known as _Loranthus europaeus_ resembles the ordinary mistletoe in general appearance, but its berries are bright yellow instead of white. “This species attacks chiefly oaks, _Quercus cerris_, L., _Q. sessiliflora_, Salisb., less frequently, _Q. pedunculata_, Ehrh., and _Castanea vulgaris_, Lam.; also lime. It is found throughout Southern Europe and as far north as Saxony, not in Britain. It grows chiefly on the branches of standards over coppice.” The injury which it inflicts on its hosts is even greater than that inflicted by the ordinary mistletoe; it often kills the branch on which it settles. The seeds are carried to the trees by birds, chiefly by the missel-thrush. In India many kinds of _Loranthus_ grow on various species of forest trees, for example, on teak;(786) one variety (_Loranthus vestitus_) grows on two species of oak, the _Quercus dilatata_, Lindl., and the _Quercus incana_, Roxb.(787) A marked distinction between the two sorts of mistletoe is that whereas ordinary mistletoe (_Viscum album_) is evergreen, the _Loranthus_ is deciduous.(788) In Greece the _Loranthus_ has been observed on many old chestnut-trees at Stheni, near Delphi.(789) In Italy it grows chiefly on the various species of oaks and also on chestnut-trees. So familiar is it on oaks that it is known as “oak mistletoe” both in popular parlance (_visco quercino_) and in druggists’ shops (_viscum quernum_). Bird-lime is made from it in Italy.(790) (M252) Both sorts of mistletoe were known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, though the distinctive terms which they applied to each appear not to be quite certain. Theophrastus, and Pliny after him, seem to distinguish three sorts of mistletoe, to which Theophrastus gives the names of _ixia_, _hyphear_, and _stelis_ respectively. He says that the _hyphear_ and the _stelis_ grow on firs and pines, and that the _ixia_ grows on the oak (δρῦς), the terebinth, and many other kinds of trees. He also observes that both the _ixia_ and the _hyphear_ grow on the ilex or holm-oak (πρῖνος), the same tree sometimes bearing both species at the same time, the _ixia_ on the north and the _hyphear_ on the south. He expressly distinguishes the evergreen species of _ixia_ from the deciduous, which seems to prove that he included both the ordinary mistletoe (_Viscum album_) and the _Loranthus_ under the general name of _ixia_.(791)