THE MISTLETOE. 101 



XI. 

 THE MISTLETOE, 



BY R. TURNER. 



[Read, 20th January, 1884,] 



So many tons of outlandish mistletoe are brought 

 into Scotland each Yuletide, and so much eager- 

 ness is shown to secure specimens, that it struck 

 me as not amiss to string together a few facts 

 about it for your consideration. The popular 

 notions with regard to the x^lant are somewhat 

 hazy. That it usually grows on oaks, that it was 

 in former ages the main feature of Druidical wor- 

 ship, and that it is from the Druids that we derive 

 its peculiar association with certain Christmas cus- 

 toms, are all popular delusions. No member of this 

 Society needs to be informed that its occurrence 

 on the oak is exceedingly rare. While its collection 

 was, i)erhaps, a mere triviality in Druidical cere- 

 monial, it is tolerably certain that its presence at 

 Yuletide junketings has no more to do with the 

 Druids than the kissing under it has to do with 

 Christianity. 



With regard to geographical distribution, Viscum 

 albutn is not indigenous in Scotland, Ireland, or the 

 Isle of Man; while it is found in England chiefly 

 in some of the Southern and the Western Midland 

 Counties, getting rarer northwards. It occurs locally 

 in all the countries of Europe, except Lapland and 

 Finmark, and also in Northern Asia. In Southern 

 Europe is found the allied parasite, Loranthus 

 europceus, classed in the same order, Loranthacece, 

 which has many other representatives — including 

 several species of the genus Viscum — in Asia, 

 America, and Australasia, 



