22 The Sacred Plant of the Druids. [Sess. 



same distinction in India. The followers of Siva sacrifice ani- 

 mals to their god, which are afterwards eaten by priests and 

 people. The followers of Vishnu present flowers only at his 

 temple, and many of them refuse to enter a temple of Siva, 

 which has, according to them, been polluted with the blood of 

 beasts. 



The Druidical festival was certainly in summer or autumn. 

 Most probably it is represented by the modern festival of 

 Hallowe'en, on October 31, half a year after the spring festival 

 of Beltane, on the 3d of May, — a Celtic festival, which was 

 originally quite distinct from the English festival on May-day. 

 At Beltane we know that human beings were actually sacrificed 

 on the hill-tops. At Hallowe'en it is probable that the blood 

 of the Fistulina was held as equivalent to actual human blood, 

 and that no real man or woman was put to death. Of course 

 these dates were determined by the entrance of the sun into 

 particular constellations of the zodiac, and not on our system, 

 which essentially depends on the date of the equinox — a 

 phenomenon which the Druids could not have determined with 

 sufficient accuracy. Probably Beltane corresponded with the 

 entrance of the sun into Taurus, and Hallowe'en with the 

 entrance into Scorpio. 



In conclusion, I believe, as I have already stated, that the 

 sacred plant of the Druids was the Beef-steak fungus, probably 

 associated with the Celtic festival of Hallowe'en ; and that the 

 sacred plant of the English was the mistletoe, vmdouhtedly asso- 

 ciated with the English festival of Yule. 



At this meeting Mr Hugh Fraser read a paper on the true 

 Cedars — viz., the Cedar of Lebanon (Ccdrus Libani), the Him- 

 alayan Cedar (C. Deodar a), and the Algiers Cedar [C. atlantica). 

 Branches from these trees were exhibited, their habits pointed 

 out, and their claims to rank as separate species discussed. 

 Pieference was also made to several other of the Coniferte 

 which are popularly, though erroneously, termed cedars. 



