missletoes

Updated: May 14, 2025

The missletoe is dependent on the apple and a few other trees, but can only in a far-fetched sense be said to struggle with these trees, for if too many of these parasites grow on the same tree, it will languish and die. But several seedling missletoes, growing close together on the same branch, may more truly be said to struggle with each other.

Charles Darwin - On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection : or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. (2nd edition)

The missletoe is dependent on the apple and a few other trees, but can only in a far-fetched sense be said to struggle with these trees, for if too many of these parasites grow on the same tree, it will languish and die. But several seedling missletoes, growing close together on the same branch, may more truly be said to struggle with each other.

Charles Darwin - On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection, or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life