52 AVTLT) FLOWERS OF 



hundred acres in extent, this was the only oak with 

 mistletoe upon it, and is the only one I have ever seen. 

 Mr. J. F. Dovaston has, however, mentioned in Lou- 

 don's Magazine of Natural History (vol. 5, p. 203), 

 that he once saw the mistletoe growing well upon the 

 oak, " and what is more singular, hanging almost over 

 a very grand druidical cromlech," in the Marquis of 

 Anglesea's Park at Plas Newydd, in the island of 

 Anglesea. My friend, Professor BTTCKMA^T, of the 

 Cireucester Agricultural College, has also informed 

 me of an oak with mistletoe upon it, which he has 

 himself seen at Frampton-on-Severn, Gloucestershire, 

 within half a mile of the river. The tree he considers 

 to be more than a century old, and the branch on 

 which the mistletoe grew about fifty years old. Seve- 

 ral oak trees here occur in the hedgerows of the 



O 



meadows (1849). 



The mistletoe is rather a local plant, though often 

 occurring where it does grow, in immense quantities, 

 as in the orchards of Herefordshire, Worcestershire, 

 and Gloucestershire. It is rare in Wales, being quite 

 unknown in some districts, becomes still rarer in the 

 north, and is only found in one spot in Scotland. On 

 the continent it is as uncommon upon the oak as with 

 us; and De Candolle, from having never seen it there, 

 was induced to think that the Lorantlms Europeans 

 was the real druidical plant, which is an untenable 

 opinion the Loranthus, though commou on the con- 

 tinent, having never been seen wild in Britain in the 

 present day. 



No author that I have met with, gives any satisfac- 

 tory solution as to how the term mistletoe has arisen, 

 though German and Danish have been brought forward 



