Viscum Viscum Viscum is a genus of about 70–100 species of mistletoes, native to temperate and tropical regions of Europe, Africa, Asia and Australasia. Traditionally, the genus has been placed in its own family Viscaceae, but recent genetic research by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group shows this family to be correctly placed within a larger circumscription of the sandalwood family, Santalaceae. They are woody, obligate hemiparasitic shrubs with branches long. Their hosts are woody shrubs and trees. The foliage is dichotomously or verticillately branching, with opposite pairs or whorls of green leaves which perform some photosynthesis (minimal in some species, notably "V.
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