60 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 24, 1873. 



assistance — in fact, it was described to me as in partial intoxica- 

 tion. He vomited 1 oz. or more of masticated Peacli kernels. 

 I at once administered an emetic, followed shortly by a full 

 dose of castor oil, which soon acted on the bowels. I ordered 

 iiim to be kept warm. After being placed in bed, he slept for 

 about two hours, after which he awoke and seemed recovered. 

 This was obviously a ease of poisoning by hydrocyanic acid 

 (prussic acid) contained in the Peach kernels, of which the 

 child had eaten a large quantity. My chief reason for report- 

 ing this is that I notice but one case mentioned in Taylor's 

 'Manual of Poisons' of poisoning by Peach kernels." 



WALES AND WELSHMEN. -No. 1. 



I HAVE now been round Wales and through Wales, and am 

 writiug from its most beautiful sea-spot, truthfully named 

 Beaumaris, built by Edward I. "upon a marish ground, yet 

 for the situation thereof he gave it this goodly faire name." 

 But let not your readers deceive themselves with the expecta- 

 tion of finding in Wales any of the characteristics learned 

 even in their nursery days. I have placed them long since on 

 a blank page of Browne's "Vulgar Errors." Take first the 

 national emblem — the Leek. " Common as Leeks in Wales " 

 was a proverb centuries old, yet never have I, in garden or 

 shop, seen a Leek in any part of the Principality. Who ever 

 saw a Welshman with a Leek in his hat on St. David's day ? 

 I can aver it is not a popular table vegetable among them, but 

 the " Welsh Onion " is ; you see it everywhere, and this very 

 morning I have seen baskets full of it at every greengrocer's 

 in this capital of the Druids' Island as we have been long 

 taught to consider it ; but more about that presently. 



We aU have heard tell that Leeks are worn by Welshmen in 

 commemoration of a victory they gained over the Anglo-Saxons 

 in the sixth century, and which they attributed to wearing 

 Leeks, by the command of St. David, to distinguish them- 

 selves in the battle ; but others say it is because each of the 

 small farmers who aided each other mth ploughs brought 

 Leeks to the common repast. And this I hold as more pro- 

 bable, sustained as it is by the still general practice of the 

 Welsh Onion being the usual accompaniment of the bread and 

 cheese you see vanishing from before every farm labourer as 

 he rests beneath the field hedge ; and a tradesman replied to 

 my observation, " It's relishing, yet satisfying," which curi- 

 ously agrees with old Tusser's verse : — 



" In Rlarch Leekes are in season for pottage ful good. 

 And sparetb the milck cow, and pui-getli the blood. 

 These having with peason, for pottat;e in Lent, 

 Thou sparetb both otemel and bread to be spent." 



Now, about this island of Anglesea, and its being especially 

 the stronghold of the Druids. Camden says, " This isle was 

 called of the Romans 3Iona, of the Britons Moti and Tir-Mon 

 — that is, The land of Mon ; and Ynis Dou-il — that is, A 

 shadowy or darke island; of the ancient Anglo-Saxons Monez, 

 and at last after that the Englishmen became lords of it, 

 Jinijle.x ea and Antjirvey, as one would say. The Englishmen's 

 Island. (Not a word about the Druids in those names.) 



Giraldus Cambrensis states it-was so fertile and so productive 

 of Wheat that there was a local saying, Jloit mam Cymbry, or 

 " Mon is the mother of Wales." This saying is as old as 1188, 

 for it is recorded then by Archbishop Baldwin in his " Itinerary 

 through Wales," and it is stated that it was so called because 

 its superabundant crops supplied the other parts of the Prin- 

 cipality. If this were so, those other parts must have been 

 superlatively unproductive, and Anglesea must have been 

 more fertile than at present, for the soil is poor and the crops 

 very inferior. Potatoes excepted, and they were unknown in 

 Baldwin's days. 



Mentioning Potatoes reminds me that I gladly learned in 

 Oxfordshire, Cheshire, and now in Anglesea, that the disease 

 this year has not made its appearance. 



Bat to return to the theme from which I have diverged. Was 

 Anglesea the stronghold of the Druids ? I cannot conceive 

 that such was the fact. There are no woods, no fossil remains 

 of forests, no soils in which forests could have flourished, yet 

 woods were their homes ; and their sacred plant, the Mistletoe, 

 does not grow here, and will not live here. I will jot down 

 some of my notes about this plant, and let any one of your 

 readers judge whether an island where the Mistletoe never 

 dwells is likely to have been the Druids' home. 



The Mistletoe is a cosmopoHtan parasite, for it has been 

 found not only on the .\pple, but on the Horse Chestnut, 

 Maple, Poplar, Acacia, Laburnum, Pear, Sallow, Locust, Larch, 



Scotch Fir, Spruce Fir, Service, Hornbeam, Olive, Vine, Wal- 

 nut, Plum, Laurel, Medlar, Oak, Cedar, Hazel, Ash, Lime, 

 Elm, Buckthorn, Whitethorn, and Birch; therefore it is not 

 the absence of a suitable tree that excludes it from Anglesea. 

 But it is more particular as to the climate it will put up with. 

 It flourished for a time in the Botanic Gardens at DubUu, but 

 it died, and Dr. Moore, the Curator, repeatedly, but unsuccess- 

 fully, tried to re-establish it ; yet at Farmley, in the county 

 of KUkeuuy, it has immemorially lived on the Apple trees. At 

 Badamscourt, near Chepstow, for three-fourths of a century it 

 was on an Oak; yet in another district of Wales, Peuiarth, 

 Merionethshire, and in other places, Mr. Cooke, gardener there, 

 says the Mistletoe is almost unknown. That it does not grow 

 in Anglesea is testified not only by the repUes to my numerous 

 relative inquiries, but by Mr. Hugh Davies, a native of the 

 island, and who published a volume on its native plants. His 

 is a remarkable testimony, for he was unwilUng to admit the 

 fact, and he says, "I have not seen this plant; but we can 

 scarcely suppose that the Druids had fixed upon, as a favourite 

 residence, a spot that did not produce this highly-venerated 

 plant." The assumption rather is that they did not reside 

 here because of that non-production. 



Some have considered — I am alluding to Welshmen — that 

 Uchelawy, the Mistletoe, is a magical herb, probably the For- 

 bidden Tree in the middle of Eden's trees, for in the Edda, to 

 the Mistletoe is ascribed Balder's death, caused through listen- 

 ing to a woman. The Druids had a great veneration for the 

 number 3, and Vallancey says " the Mistletoe was sacred to 

 them because not only its berries but its leaves grow in clusters 

 of three." 



In Brittany, at Yule-tide, the Druids sought for a Mistletoe 

 on the Oak of about thirty years' growth, and when found it 

 was consecrated, the P<i;(c/ir('.<(«»i, or universal remedy — the 

 restorer of health and the securer of happiness. It was cut 

 with a golden, or more probably brazen, sickle, and after a 

 sacrifice and prayer, fragments were distributed to the prostrate 

 people. Whoever obtained a fragment believed that he was 

 sheltered from sickness, witchery, evil spu-its, and even thunder- 

 bolts. 



As the berries of the Mistletoe were considered promoters 

 of fertility, and the whole plant to be all-powerful to pre- 

 serve from evil, kissing beneath it may well have been 

 practised as an invocation to obtain those benefits ; and it is 

 certain that a beUef prevailed that the maiden not kissed 

 under the Mistletoe would not be married next year. We may 

 be quite certain that Shakespeare calls it "the baleful Mistle- 

 toe " because it is injurious to the trees on which it prevails, 

 and not because he objected to kissing beneath it. 



At Christmas, or Yule-tide, the Druids laid the Mistletoe, 

 which they called " All-heal," on their altars. This they cut off 

 the Mistletoe from the trees with brazen celts, or hatchets, fixed 

 on the ends of long staves ; and, in Stukeley's time, on Christ- 

 mas-eve Mistletoe was placed on the altar of York Cathedral, 

 and a general pardon was proclaimed at the gates of the 

 city. 



Seldeu relates that in France about Christmas-tide the young 

 men went from village to village knocking at all the doors, 

 with the exclamation, " An yiiy I 'an itciif" — that is, " To the 

 Mistletoe this New Year ;" the Celtic name of the Oak was 

 flui/. This seems to be a relic of Druidical customs ; for it is 

 recorded that at Christmas time the Druids in solemn pro- 

 cession went to gather the Mistletoe on the Oak, chanting 

 as they went, " The New Year is at hand, gather the Mistle- 

 toe." 



In Gay's time the Mistletoe was mingled with other ever- 

 greens in decorating our churches, for he wrote — 



" Now with bright Holly ail the temples strow, 

 With Laurel green, and sacred Mistletoe," 



Even now in Worcestershire a farmer will give the Mistletoe 

 bough in his house to his cow that calves first after New 

 Year's-day to secure luck to all his dairy. But the belief in 

 the general curative as well as the mystical powers of the 

 plant's berries still prevails in many places, and as the plant 

 was widely known here as " All-heal," so was it known to 

 the ancient Romans by the synonymous name of " Omnia 

 sonans." — G. 



P.S. — I hope this will be in time to qualify that which I 

 wrote about the Mistletoe in Anglesea. I can meet with no 

 one who has seen it growing naturally here, liut I have seen it 

 flourishing in the garden of a butcher named Hughes. He 

 has a very luxuriant and fruitful orchard, and on the bark of 



