HA RD Wl CKE 'S S CIENCE - G OS SI P. 



THE MISTLETOE I ITS GROWTH, AGE, AND THE USAGES 



CONNECTED WITH IT. 



By EDWIN LEES, F.L.S., F.G.S. 



HE elaborate paper on the 

 History of the Mistle- 

 toe that appeared in 

 Science - Gossip for 

 December last is not 

 quite exhaustive, and 

 requires supplementing 

 with a few further re- 

 marks. Thcauthorofthe 

 article rather strangely 

 says that the oldest 

 specimen of mistletoe that he has heard of was 

 no more than fifteen years old. Surely he must 

 be a young observer, or his own experience would 

 have extended far beyond this. Nearly forty years 

 ago I mentioned, in the Cheltenham "Looker-on," 

 and afterwards in my " Botanical Looker-out in 

 England and Wales," that there was an oak growing 

 on the Ridgway in Eastnor Park, Herefordshire, 

 with a mass of mistletoe upon it ; and this tree, with 

 the mistletoe upon it — perhaps a little diminished by 

 the attacks of curious explorers — still exists, and if 

 the oak is allowed to stand, will continue to grow 

 there, I have no doubt, for many years to come. 

 Indeed, as far as my observation goes, the Mistletoe 

 veiy rarely dies upon the tree that sustains it, though 

 detrimental to the well-being of the tree, and so 

 justly called the " baleful mistletoe" by Shakspeare. 

 Having myself long ago gone into the history of 

 the Mistletoe, I have come to the conclusion that 

 the domestic use of it in England at Christmas time 

 is to be traced to the northern nations, who dedicated 

 it to Freya, the Scandinavian Venus ; and a great 

 deal of what has been stated about the Druids is 

 mythical. At all events, the Romans upset the 

 Druidical superstitions, and it is hardly probable that, 

 during their sway in Britain for about four hundred 

 years, the Mistletoe would be permitted to be 

 held in any honour. But the northern nations had 

 always regarded it in a superstitious light, and their 

 inroad and settlement in our island re-introduced the 

 No. 146. 



use of the plant for irreverent or mirthful rites con- 

 nected with sexual intercourse ; and thus it ought 

 never to appear in sacerdotal ornamentation. The 

 Druids no doubt honoured the Mistletoe religiously, 

 *' with a sense of mystery and awe "; but in the present 

 day it is only regarded mirthfully, and in connection 

 with loving or sportive influences. The plant there- 

 fore, I do not think has been with us derived from 

 Druidical lore, and it is curious enough that in Wales, 

 where Druidic influence was longest felt, the Mistletoe 

 is almost unknown, and little regarded or sought after 

 by the Welsh -speaking people. 



The Druids, it is asserted by various authors, 

 gathered the Mistletoe at the commencement of the 

 new year, but the Druidical new year did not cor- 

 respond with our Christmas time, but began in March, 

 for Toland, in his " History of the Druids," says 

 that the Druidical New Year's day was the loth of 

 March, " which was the day of seeking, cutting, and 

 consecrating the wonder-working all-heal." Accord- 

 ing to Pliny,' the virtue of the Mistletoe was to resist 

 all poisons, and make fruitful any that used it. This 

 latter idea seems to connect it with its present appro- 

 jiriation as a hall or kitchen guest, and unfits it for 

 sacred uses, though why it should be thought conducive 

 to fertility does not clearly appear, unless its numerous 

 white berries were considered indicative. Peter 

 Roberts, however, in his " Popular Cambrian Anti- 

 quities," has remarked, that "the blossoms fall off 

 within a few days of the summer solstice, and the 

 berries within a few days of the winter solstice. This, 

 then, rather than any medical virtues of the herb 

 itself, which are at least dubious, was probably the 

 true cause of its estimation." The same Welsh author 

 says the British Druids called the plant Gjvdd, meaning 

 the Herb, by way of pre-eminence, but that it was 

 commonly called Uchel-Wydd, or the high-growing 

 herb, by the Celtic population. 



It was only the Mistletoe of the Oak that was 

 esteemed medicinally, and an observant friend of 

 mine has assured me that he knew an old oak that was 



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