Note q — BOOK X.
Reading edition
The ancient Naturalists do generally agree, that Misseltoe is propagated by its Seeds carried about by, and passing through the Body of Birds. Thus Theophrastus de Caus. Plant. L. 2. c. 24. τὸ δὲ ἀπὸ σῆς ὀρνίθων, &c. Initium verò à pastu avium:——Quippe Visco detracto confectóque in alveïs, quod frigidissimum est, semen cum excremento purum dimittitur, & factâ mutatione aliquâ in arbore Stercoris causâ pullulat, erumpitque, &c. So also Pliny saith, viz. Omnino autem satum [Viscum] nullo modo nascitur, nec nisi per alvum Avium reddittum, maximè Palumbis ac Turdi. Hæc est natura, ut nisi maturatum in ventre Avium, non proveniat. Plin. N. H. L. 16. c. 44. Whether what Theophrastus and Pliny affirm, be conducive to the better fertilizing the Seeds of Misseltoe, I know not; but that it is not of absolute Necessity, I can affirm upon mine own Experience, having seen the Seeds germinate, even in the Bark of Oak. But although they shot above an Inch, and seem’d to root in the Tree, yet they came to nothing, whether destroy’d by Ants, &c. which I suspected, or whether disagreeing with the Oak, I know not. But I since find the Matter put out of doubt by Mr. Doody, which see in Mr. Ray’s Hist. Plant. App. p. 1918.
Nutmegs are said to be fertiliz’d after the same Manner, as Tavernier saith was confirm’d to him by Persons that lived many Years in those Parts; whose Relation was, The Nutmeg being ripe, several Birds come from the Islands toward the South, and devour it whole, but are forced to throw it up again, before it be digested: And that the Nutmeg, then besmear’d with a viscous Matter, falling to the Ground, takes Root, and produces a Tree, which would never thrive, was it planted. Tavern. of the Commod. of the G. Mogul. And Monsieur Thevenot, in his Travels to the Indies, gives this Account; The Tree is produc’d after this Manner; there is a kind of Birds in the Island, that having pick’d off the green Husk, swallow the Nuts, which having been some Time in their Stomach, they void by the ordinary Way; and they fail not to take rooting in the Place where they fall, and in Time to grow up to a Tree. This Bird is shap’d like a Cuckow, and the Dutch prohibit their Subjects under Pain of Death, to kill any of them. Vid. Sir T. Pope Blunt’s Nat. Hist.
But Mr. Ray gives a somewhat different Account: Hunc fructum [Nucem Moschatam] variæ quidem aves depascuntur, sed maximè Columbæ genus album & parvum, quæ dehiscente nucamento, illectæ suavitate Macis, hunc cum Nuce eripiunt & devorant, nec nisi repletâ ingluvie capacissimâ saginam deserunt. Nostrates ibi mercatores Columbis istis Nut-eaters sive Nucivoris nomen imposuerunt. Quas autem vorant Nuces, post integras per alvum reddunt. Redditæ citiùs deinde germinant utpote præmaceratæ fervore Ventriculi. Arbores inde natæ ceu præcociores, facilè sunt corruptioni obnoxiæ fructumque ferunt cæteris multo viliorem, & hâc causa neglectum incolis contemptumque, prater Macin, quem ad adulterandum meliorem adhibent. Ray H. P. L. 27. c. 4.