a-"" S. No 60., Feb. 21, '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



153 



but Venom out of the sweetest Flowers. Unto tLe Judi- 

 cious and Wise who can registrate Vertue with the point of 

 a Diamond, into the jRock of Eternal Memory, and Vice 

 into Oblivion Sand : And whose Genius with the Bee, to 

 Extract Honey out of the bitterest Flowers. Therefore, 

 the one may read to be Edified, the other read and be 

 offended : Let Dogs bark what they will, the Moon is 

 still the same. Farewell." 



There being no date to this address, I am un- 

 able to say if it appeared for the first time in the 

 impression of 1700; the "other Things" alluded 

 to in the title, refer to amplifications in the alle- 

 gory, and if what is Papal or Heretical has any 

 reference to exaggeration or the apocryphal, the 

 Scotch poet has rather added than diminished 

 therefrom ; for the whole story of meeting with 

 Judas, and the browbeating of the Arch-Enemy 

 by this flyting wife are his creations. Having 

 given your readers a specimen of the old ballad 

 in the curt interlocutory between the heroine and 

 St. Thomas, I would, in conclusion, by way of 

 identifying the common origin of both, and of 

 illustrating the aforesaid amplification of the dia- 

 logue, add the Scottish corrector's version of the 

 same incident : 



" Thomas then said, ' you make such strife, 

 When ye are out, and meikle din, 

 If ye were here I'll lay my life 



No peace the Saints will get within; 

 It is your trade for to he flyting 



Still in a fever as one raves. 

 No marvel then you wives be biting. 

 Tour tongues are made of aspen-leaves.* " 

 * J. 0. 



MISTLETOE, HOW PRODDCED. 



(2"*S. iii. 47.); 



As this question is asked in a previous number 

 of " N. & Q.," I will state a fact respecting this 

 parasitic plant which happened under my own 

 notice. 



On August 9, 1843, a severe hail-storm, which 

 visited many parts of the Eastern Counties, passed 

 immediately over this district. The hailstones 

 were so large in size as to injure the bark of the 

 young trees, destroying many of them. So it was 

 in a garden of thriving young espalier apple trees 

 at this place. The bark of those that recovered 

 from it had, in two or three years, grown very 

 much over the injured places ; and into these, in 

 the month of March, I rubbed the berries of the 

 mistletoe. 



During the summer I examined the trees, ex- 

 pecting to find the berries germinating ; in this I 

 was disappointed, as also in the following spring. 

 I now lost all hope of seeing the plant appear. 

 However, in the April of the year following, the 

 gardener called my attention to two small pointed 

 leaves projecting from the bark of many of the 

 trees. These, on examination, I found to be a 



promise of the long-looked-for mistletoe ; which, 

 since that time, has been established in the garden. 

 I am fully convinced these plants were produced 

 from the berries I had inserted. I am disposed 

 to think that the seed is never dropped in the 

 muting of birds. I have noticed that when the 

 berries are stripped from other trees and shrubs, 

 those of the mistletoe have remained untouched. 

 I conjecture that, except when pressed by hunger 

 in severe weather, the birds never try the mistle- 

 toe berry, which, from Its glutinous nature, ad- 

 heres to the beak, to clear off which they rub the 

 beak on the rough bark, and thus may insert the 

 seed. W. E. M. 



Norwich. 



I was lately shown, growing most healthily on 

 an apple tree, by Mr. Fruin, of Myrtle Cottage, 

 Petersham, Surrey, some mistletoe that he had 

 propagated by crushing a berry on to a bough, 

 and allowing the seed to stick. The specimen 

 that I saw was about ten years old : the growth, 

 I was told, for the first year, was scarcely per- 

 ceptible ; but after that time the parasite throve 

 apace. I may add, that I made the experiment 

 in my own garden this Christmas. 



P. J. F. Gantillon. 



It may be produced by inserting the berry under 

 the bark of an apple tree with a knife, cutting up- 

 wards to prevent the rain from lodging. As it 

 grows on other trees I have no doubt inserting 

 the seed would produce it on any trees on which 

 it is a parasite ; but on the apple I have seen it 

 growing from inserted seed. A. Holt White. 



YEKGUBRETUS, MANDUBRATUS, CASSIVELAUNUS. 



(2°'' S. iii. 91.) 



These are Latinized forms of Gaulish or Kymric 

 words. Under Vergobretus Dufresne says : 



" Summus Magistratus apud iEduos ut Auctor est 

 Caesar, lib. i. de Bello Gallico : Divitiacus et Lasco {Lisco) 

 summo Magistratui praerant ^dui, qui creatur annuus, et 

 vitcB jiecisque habetpotestatem. GlossiB Isodori : Virgobretus, 

 nonien Magistratus. Virgobretus, habent etiam notse Tyro- 

 nis, p. 60. Etiamnum hodie Vierg dicitur supremus Ma- 

 gistratus Augustoduni. De vocis etymo vide Goropium 

 Bekanum inGallicis, lib. i. et in., Hotomannum adCaesaris, 

 lib. I. et lib. vii. n. 6. Isaac' Pontanum in Glos', prisco- 

 Gallico, Bochartum de Colon. Phoenic, pag. 79., &c., ed 

 Schilterum in Gloss Teuton." 



Vergobretus was the name of the chief magistrate 

 among the JUdui. The remains of this Gaulish 

 word are found in the three Gaelic words Ver go 

 breith, more correctly Fear gu breith, i. e. " Man 

 for judgment," " a great Judge." In Kymric, 

 Gwr-gyvraith (see Thierry). It is not impossible 

 that dubratus in Mandubratus may be from the 



