Trees and their Associations 



;8i 



the year it was distributed amongst the 

 people as a sacred and holy plant, crying, 

 "The mistleto for the new year." It 

 would appear that these sprigs of mistleto 

 were highly prized by the people, and from 

 the virtues invested in them by the Druids 

 were hung up in their houses. Its presence 

 vvas held as a charm against every disease, 

 and the malignant operations of evil spirits. 

 It was also used in the highest office of 

 friendship — being a valuable matter of inter- 

 change with their friends. A modern writer 

 says, " Some remnant of these antient super- 

 stitions remain with us to this day, for we 

 cannot gaze upon it without some slight 

 feeling of reverence, akhough utterly dis- 

 connected with any religious ceremony, unless 

 it be that of matrimony." This custom of 

 hanging up a bush of mistleto at the festivals 

 of Yule tide has always been observed in the 

 kitchen or servants' hall ; and although it may 

 be invested with religious associations, still it 

 is not without its superstitious charms, for we 

 are told that the maid who has not been kissed 

 under it at Christmas will remain in single 

 wretchedness for the following year. Kiss- 

 ing a fair one under the mistleto, and 

 Avishing her a happy new year as you present 

 her with one of the berries for luck, is also a 

 custom of our time. 



The religious veneration of the mistleto 

 in antient times was not peculiar to this 

 island, but extended over the continent of 

 Europe, and we learn from Virgil, who com- 

 pares it to the golden bough in Infernus, that 

 its use was not unknown to the antient 

 Greeks. This author speaks of it as growing 

 on the sacred oak in the neighbourhood of a 

 baleful stinking lake. Shakspere follows 

 in his path. In "Titus Andronicus" he de- 

 scribes a melancholy valley, where he associ- 

 ates the plant with unlucky omens. 



The allusions to the plant as one of evil 

 omen are very rare. Most of our authors 

 and poets speak of its golden boughs in terms 

 of praise. In the antient Christmas carols 

 it is not spoken of until the seventeenth 

 century. The holly and ivy may be traced 

 at least two centuries earlier. Herrick is 

 about the first to speak of it on Candlemas-day. 



Gay, speaking of the festival of Christmas, 

 says : — 



"Now with bright holly all the temples strew, 

 With laurel green and sacred mistleto." 

 Gay has been taken to task about terming it 

 the sacred mistleto, and it is inferred that 

 he must have overlooked the fact of its never 

 being allowed to enter the sacred precincts 

 of the Holy Church. Most writers upon 

 religious subjects agree in terming it a pro- 

 fane plant, from the high distinction it held 

 in the Pagan rites of the antient Druids. 



As we are now approaching the shady 

 side of our subject, which speaks of trees of 

 a monumental character, I shall allude but 

 cursorily to the ash and the elm. The weeping 

 ash, as also a variety of the elm partaking 

 of that character, are modern innovations 

 amongst the older race of monumental trees, 

 and have evidently been selected for that 

 purpose from their resemblance to the weep- 

 ing willow. The Scotch and English elms 

 are often associated with churchyards, but 

 from their size are only planted in the fence 

 or boundaries. The churchyard elms are 

 famiUar objects, but they bear no higher 

 historical associations than in connexion with 

 the Romans, who planted them on their 

 grave mounds. 



Hood speaks of its weird associations, and 

 many of our modern poets have bestowed a 

 share of their notice upon it. 



The associations of the willow are too 

 numerous to be thus disposed of. The 

 willow is to be found throughout the whole 

 of Europe and Asia, and from the fact of its 

 many associations with the captives of Israel, 

 and other scenes of sadness spoken of in 

 holy writ, we are able to reverence it in per- 

 son. This is not the case with the cypress 

 and the palm, which are not indigenous to 

 our changeable climate, and for which we 

 have to find substitutes. The willow serves 

 its own purpose with us, and is used in the 

 instance of the goat uillow, whose silvery 

 catkins speaks of the early spring, as the 

 palm branches which were strewed in the 

 pathway of Christ on his entry into Jerusalem. 

 This does not speak of sadness, but reminds 

 us of the long weary pilgrimages of our fore- 



