title: Mistletoe.
abstract: It's not difficult to see why mistletoe has always impressed people. It is a parasite, so it appears miraculously in trees without any visible seed or soil. It is green and alive when most other plants are at their lowest ebb. It is not, of course, the only evergreen plant. But it is curious that it used to be rigorously excluded from British churches, which people were quite happy to festoon with holly and ivy...