JANUARY. 



39 



applied to the forehead gives ease iii the head-ache, 

 and hence the propriety of its appropriation to wreath 

 the brows of bacchanals, who are charitably supposed 

 to require such a bandage ; but in modern practice 

 the "fronde coronat ' is superseded by a glass of 

 soda-water. 



Amid the dearth of other flowers, at a time when 

 in days of yore we were wont to find ourselves 



" In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice,," 

 the history of a stranger plant, now green and con- 

 spicuous among the branches of the denuded trees, 

 offers itself to our notice not inappropriately. 



At this season of the year perhaps a more interest- 

 ing or exciting object can scarcely come under the 

 sphere of our observation, than the long familiar 

 Mistletoe. It is one of those plants of general in- 

 terest that are alike noticed by the clown and the 

 philosopher ; and attracts the attention of the medita- 

 tive man of science in the open fields of observation, 

 as well as the unscientific votaries of fun and frolic, 

 that in these bronzen utilitarian days still dot the 

 scene here and there, as a counterpoise to their graver 

 and more studious brethren. I shall, therefore, in 

 the brief sketch I am about to give of the plant, 

 admit a sportive vein that few other subjects would 

 allow in philosophical discussion, remembering that 

 mirth and joy have ever nestled among the white 

 berries of our festive plant ; for as Walter Scott says- 



" Forth to the woods did merry men go 

 To gather in the Mistletoe." 



It seems, however, remarkable, that while ivitldn 

 doors this mystic plant has ever been connected with 

 mirthful ideas, that poets generally have regarded 



