Viscum

(viskům.) [ L.] (Bot.) A gen. of plants, O. Loranthacea. The Mistletoe, V. album, is a parasitical shrub, whose root (or what corresponds to a root) is firmly imbedded in the substance of the tree on which it grows. The stem, when full-grown, attains the thickne of a broomstick; it repeatedly divides and subdivides, in a regularly-forked manner, each joint or articulation being marked by a prominent ring. The leaves are opposite stalkle ,oblong or somewhat lance shaped, leathery, and of a yellowish-green color. The male flowers are in clusters of four or five in the forks of the branches; the female flowers are se ile like the males, and solitary or nearly so. The fruit forms a small white berry. The mistletoe of the oak was an object of superstitious veneration by the Druids. [s. 941]