people mean the very best by their country and its institutions. They love it beyond their lives. The overwhelming majority want clean politics and good government. If those honest, clear-brained citizens you commend for eschewing politics and staying at home with their families, would give as much time and thought to their political duties as to their private affairs and individual pleasures, the stables would be cleaned at the next election. The remedy is not to restrict the suffrage, but to wake up the honest and intelligent to the knowledge that they and their kind are more than a match for the rascals if only they will exercise the same zeal and persistence. The trouble is not with the humble citizens, but with the silk stockings, who are afraid of soiling their fine hosiery.

“Oh! if I only had my life to live over! If I could make my voice heard once more, I would arouse my countrymen to save the government which is the hope of the world. They can do it, and do it at once. If one-half, yes, one-fourth of those who know the causes and results of the corruption and misgovernment in our land, and want things done right, would make it their business to attend every political caucus and convention to which they are eligible, and on election day would vote only for such candidates as ought to be elected, and would accept such positions as come to themselves unsought, the thing would be done; the frauds and schemers would be sent to the rear, and our grand country would resume her stately march to her high destiny. If I could but".

"My dear friend, you take it too hard," interrupted Themistocles, "We will not quarrel over worldly affairs; the live people must work out their own salvation. It may be after all that you are right, that universal suffrage is not to blame; possibly the fault is more with your intelligent than with your humble. Let us hope they will awake to their danger and opportunity. It is certainly time they did. I will forget your personal illusions, and you will forgive my strictures on your countrymen. Come, we will repair to

breakfast."

They repaired, and the first thing the Honorable Jerry undertook to swallow was some red-hot native asphaltum,

which burned its way from mouth to stomach, and when it landed started such a conflagration that he sprang in amazement and terror from the table and found himself in a Washington undertaker's office, with two embalmers just starting in to do their perfect work.

They threw up the job. The funeral was put off. The Congressional Committee gave up the trip, and from the day of his new birth Jerry Webb was a power for good government and honest politics, and put forth all his great intellectual strength and oratorical gifts, not to limit the suffrage, but to arouse the honest sluggards and marshal the hosts of good citizens against the intrenched army of self-seekers.

When the array was set and it was seen what a vast majority were on the side of clean politics and the honest and capable administration of affairs, the victory was won; public office ceased to be a private snap, and the millennium began.

I

MISTLETOE.

BY REV. ROBERT BLIGHT.

F we inspect the wares of the fruiterer in store or market stall, a few days before Christmas, we may see bunches of two plants provided as adjuncts to the Yule-tide festivities, which present very different features from those of the holly and other evergreens used in the decorations of the season. Both have glistening white berries, but one has them in small spikes, while the other has them sessile in the axils of the leaves. One, also, is of a tawny yellowishgreen color, and the other is more decidedly green, but with a yellowish tinge. Again, one is somewhat irregular and straggling in its appearance, and the other is almost mathematically exact in the division and subdivision of its twigs. The former is the American mistletoe, the latter is the European, which has been imported to satisfy a lingering liking for an old English custom. My own experience is that only a very small proportion of those who would think Christmas somewhat imperfect without one or other of these plants in the house know much about the history and the habits of the mistletoe family, although it is one of the most interesting groups of plants.

The Loranthaceæ, to all the members of which the name mistletoe is loosely applied, and to which the American mistletoe (Phoradendron, or Loranthus, flavescens) and the European true mistletoe (Viscum album) belong, are an order of woody parasites found mainly in the tropics, but having a few representatives in the temperate zones. Those who have examined the North American species know what small and insignificant-looking flowers it possesses, but many of those found in the tropics have large and brilliant flowers. In addition to the true mistletoe, Europe possesses Loranthus europaeus, very generally distributed, and an Arceuthobium, which is met with in Italy parasitic on juniper trees. Professor Moseley tells us that a curious species (Loranthus aphyllus) is found in Chile parasitic on that

odd-looking cactus, the candelabra-like cereus. "This mistletoe is most remarkable, because, like the plant on which it is parasitic, it is entirely devoid of leaves. It is extremely abundant, growing on nearly all the cereus trees, and is very conspicuous, because its short stems are of a bright pink color. I could not understand what it was at first, as it looked like a pink inflorescence of some kind belonging to the cactus." In Tierra del Fuego there is a misodendron, or myzodendron, which grows on beech trees. In Australia species of loranthus are parasitic on the gum trees, the banksias, and the casuarinas.

This parasitic mode of life, which is especially characteristic of the mistletoes, is regarded as a form of degeneration. In the words of Ray Lankester, "degeneration may be defined as a gradual change of the structure in which the organism becomes adapted to less varied and less complex conditions of life." The state to be attained in vegetable parasitism is that of being able to use for the purpose of food those organic products which have already been prepared by other plants. As this will necessitate peculiar habitats and peculiar organs, it is evident that the chances of survival in the case of parasites will be narrowed up, as compared with those of plants which are independent of others. We see, then, that the adoption of such a mode of life, however successful it may be under favorable circumstances, is a decided retrogression from the free life of the plant which follows the usual course of vegetable growth. A plant which attains the state of complete parasitism is incapable of obtaining carbon from the carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere. As the chief agent in this assimilation is the mysterious substance called chlorophyll, which gives the green color to plants, a parasite has no need of it and becomes destitute of it. Hence we find some parasitic plants colorless or of colors other than green. But plants require other articles of food besides carbon, and some of these are absorbed through roots. If a parasite has arrived at that state when it can begin life and continue to exist solely on the food prepared by another plant, roots, in their ordinary form, can be dispensed with, provided there are

organs by which the nourishment can be introduced into the system. We find that perfect parasites are rootless, and that they absorb their food through a degraded root-organ called a haustorium.

From the ordinary plant, on the one hand, to the perfect parasite, on the other, there may be intermediate stages, two of which are exemplified by two plants which lie immediately before our notice. The common dodder germinates in the ground like the majority of plants, and in the early stages of its life possesses true roots. As soon as it reaches the host on which it is to live, it sends out haustoria, cuts off its connection with the roots, and henceforth is a complete parasite. Its orange-colored threads, destitute of leaves and chlorophyll but crowded with flowers, trailing over other plants, are well known. The American and the European mistletoes germinate on the bark of trees by means of haustoria, and with these penetrating to the food supply, the plant grows. They, however, develop leaves filled more or less with chlorophyll, so that they possess the power of augmenting the nourishment provided by the host by carbon which they obtain by decomposing the carbon dioxide in the air. The mistletoe found by Professor Moseley on Cereus quisco, being destitute of chlorophyll, and doubtless germinating as other species of loranthus do, is an excellent instance of a perfectly parasitic plant.

From the way in which we find instances of parasitic growth scattered through the natural orders of plants, we may readily suppose that this is one of the many directions in which the inherent tendency to variation among plants works. The monotropas, dodders, figworts, broomrapes, and mistletoes of our temperate zone are but a few of the whole number of orders which supply instances of this strange phenomenon. It may be remarked also that in some of the orders the habit has become characteristic of the whole of the members, while in others it is peculiar to individual species. When we remember that the process of adaptation to the habit, in one natural order alone, has been carried on in countries as distinct as Europe, South America, and Australia, it is evident that it has existed in many places. The fact that