26 



HARD WI CKE 'S S CIENCE - G OS SIP. 



entirely stripped of its mistletoe by country people, 

 who considered it a remedy against fits. This may 

 accomit in some degree for the rarity of the Mistletoe 

 upon the Oak, or its loss from any tree where it was 

 once known to grow. Ray, indeed, mentions our 

 plant as a specific in epilepsy, as well as useful in 

 apoplexy and giddiness, and some years ago Sir 

 John Colbatch published a " Dissertation concerning 

 the Mistletoe, a most wonderful sj^ecifick Remedy for 

 the Cure of convulsive Distempers." This seems to 

 have been the last serious effort made in behalf of 

 the medical virtues of this mystic plant, but it failed 

 to keep it within the pale of the " Materia Medica" ; 

 for, as Sir James Smith rather sarcastically intimates 

 in his "English Flora," — "a plant of viscum 

 gathered from an oak is preferred by those who rely 

 on virtues, which, perhaps, never existed in any 

 mistletoe whatever." 



The Mistletoe abounds far too much in the apple 

 orchards of Worcestershire and Herefordshire, but 

 passes over pear-trees, and long observation has only 

 given me two or three instances where pear-trees 

 had mistletoe upon them. The apple was known to 

 the Druids, and it has been suggested that the wily 

 priests furtively transplanted their mystic plant from 

 apple-trees, where it was sure to grow, to oaks, 

 where othenvise it would be unlikely to be found. 

 This is rendered not improbable by what Davies 

 says in his "Celtic Researches," that the apple-tree 

 was considered by the Druids the next sacred tree to 

 the oak, and that orchards of it were planted by them 

 in the vicinity of their groves of oak. This was cer- 

 tainly an astute plan for keeping up the growth of 

 the Mistletoe. 



With regard to the propagation of the plant by 

 birds, I have no faith in the nasty Latin adage as to 

 its spreading from their deposited ordure. Black- 

 birds, thrushes, and fieldfares are fond of the mistle- 

 toe-berries, and when their bills get sticky from 

 eating them, they wipe their mandibles on the branches 

 of trees where they rest, and from the seeds there 

 left enveloped in slime young plants take their rise. 

 I have thus observed mistletoe bushes extending in 

 long lines across country where tall hawthorns rise 

 from hedges bounding the pastures ; for, next to 

 apple-trees, mistletoe is most plentiful upon the Haw- 

 thorn. Bat rather curiously, in modern times, the 

 parasite has shown a predilection for the black Italian 

 poplar, which has been much planted of late years ; 

 and wherever in the midland counties this poplar has 

 been planted, the Mistletoe is sure to appear upon 

 the trees in a short time. The Lime is also very often 

 obliged to support the plant, which disfigures its 

 symmetry, raising huge knots upon its branches; and 

 I have observed limes that must have nourished jjro- 

 tuberant bushes for thirty years or more. The MajDle, 

 the Ash, and the Willow have frequently mistletoe 

 bushes upon them ; but, common as the Elm is, that 

 tree almost entirely escapes an intrusion ; and, in- 



deed, I never but once saw mistletoe upon an Elm. 

 On the Oak it is veiy imcommon in the i:)resent day, 

 and where apparent it is on trees of no very great 

 age, whatever their descent may be. 



My friend Professor Buckman, who has written 

 economically upon orchards in his useful book on 

 " Farm Cultivation," asserts that while the Mistletoe 

 is hurtful to the tree in hastening its decay, yet in 

 apple-trees it has the effect of pressing on their 

 maturity and fruit-bearing earlier than would be the 

 case without the parasite, which ui'ges a quicker 

 g:-owth upon its foster-parent. The tenant of an 

 orchard would thus be benefited for a few years, 

 though premature decay would be the result. 



Authors may differ as to the etymology of Mistle- 

 toe, but it appears to me that our common English 

 name has no very recondite origin. Alistion is an 

 obsolete old English word, used, however, as late as 

 in the writings of Boyle ; and this is defined in Dr. 

 Johnson's original folio edition of his Dictionary as 

 ^^ the state of behig mingled.''^ Now this is truly the 

 condition of our plant, which is intermingled with the 

 foliage of other trees, and mixes up their juices with 

 its own ; and is indeed in rural places still simply 

 called the Mistle. If to this we add the old English 

 tod or toe, signifying bush, we have at once the deri- 

 vation, meaning the mingled bush, mixed up and 

 growing among foliage dissimilar to its own. Still, 

 in winter its stiff and leathery evergreen leaves and 

 dense bushy aspect give it a visible position on its 

 own account ; and thus the epithet of ^' frigore 

 viscum " given it by Virgil, is peculiarly applicable. 

 It is certainly remarkable that the hanging up of 

 mistletoe in houses for mirthful purposes and emble- 

 matical of Christmas should so long endure that the 

 Midland towns have their markets filled with it as 

 Christmas approaches, and loads of it find a ready 

 sale in the North of England, where the plant is a 

 rarity, if found at all. 



SPORT IN THE NEW FOREST. 



THE interesting paper which appeared in the 

 last volume, on the " Lepidoptera of the New 

 Forest," has induced me to think that a short 

 account of a visit there last summer might not prove 

 unacceptable to some of the readers of Science- 

 Gossir. 



Although the list of entomological captures be but 

 meagre, yet this does not at all i-epresent the amount 

 of enjoyment to be derived from a holiday in this 

 locality, even by the most enthusiastic collector of 

 insects ; and although his collection may be in no 

 way enriched, yet delight in the beauty of the woods 

 should keep him from disappointment. The cha- 

 racter of the scenery of the New Forest is almost 

 unique among English woodlands, and its vast ex- 

 tent and the size of its timber render it quite so. In 



