The Special Collections Book of the Week this week is:

Mistletoes of Africa by Roger Polhill and Delbert Wiens

Mistletoes rank among the most fascinating groups of plants. Popular culture in the Western world is imbued with mystery of viscum album, fruiting mid-winter in a barren landscape. The species not only adorns our Christmas festivities as a portent of friendship, but is still a respected palliative for our most feared disease, cancer, with its connotations in sympathetic medicine of abnormal growth. The sight of brilliantly flowering plants springing from leafless trees at the height of dry season in Africa is no less spectacular.

Access: https://univofpretoria.on.worldcat.org/oclc/40756787

This book is available at Special Collections, housed on level 5 of the Merensky 2 Library, and is part of our Africana (ZA) Collection.

The Special Collections unit of the Department of Library Services plays a stewardship role in the acquisition and preservation of the Library's rare and valuable information resources, making t hem accessible to students, staff and researchers, as well as safeguarding them for future generations.