Viscum album originally described by Linnaeus. Its species name is the Latin adjective "albus" "white". It and the other members of the genus "Viscum" were originally classified in the mistletoe family Viscaceae, but this family has since been sunk into the larger family Santalaceae. Several subspecies are commonly accepted. They differ in fruit colour, leaf shape and size, and most obviously in the host trees utilised. European mistletoe is potentially fatal, in a concentrated form, and people can become seriously ill from eating the berries. The toxic lectin viscumin has been isolated from "Viscum album". Viscumin is a cytotoxic protein (ribosome inactivating
Common name had not the author introduced into it so many new English names, that are to be found in no dictionary, and that do not preclude the necessity of learning with what Latin names they are synonymous. A tolerable idea may be given of the danger of too great a multiplicity of vulgar names, by imagining what geography would be, or, for instance, the Post-office administration, supposing every town had a totally different name in every language. Various bodies and the authors of many technical and semi-technical books do not simply adapt existing common names for various organisms; they try to