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THE MISTLETOE IX HEREFORDSHIRE. 

 By Dr. Bull. 



The Mistletoe in Herefordshire deserves the especial attention of the mem- 

 bers of our Club. The Viscum album is indeed so much more common here than 

 in any other county of England, that it may truly be said to be more distinctive 

 of Herefordshire than the apple tree itself. It is not my intention to give the 

 Botanical characteristics of the Mistletoe, which books contain ; nor do I pro- 

 pose to give any special description of the graceful elegant plant you all know 

 so well ; but I take this opportunity of bringing before your notice some of the 

 chief points of interest with regard to it, which have been more or less over- 

 looked, viz. : — 



ist. The Mode of its Propagation and growth : 



2nd. The Trees it lives upon in this county : 



3rd. The recorded instances of its growth on the Oak in England : and 



4th. The Romance of its history as developed in times past and present. 



I. — The Propagation and Growth of the Mistletoe. 

 The mode in which the Mistletoe is propagated has given rise to much 

 discussion. 



" The Naturalists are puzzled to explain 

 How trees did first this stranger entertain, 

 Whether the busy birds engraft it there, 

 Or else some Deity's mysterious care. 

 As Druid's thought," 



or rather taught, adds Withering severely. 



This plant has long been the object of close observation from the religious 

 veneration in which it was held — Aristotle {De Gen. Animal, lib. i, c. i.) and other 

 of the ancient writers imagine that the seeds will not grow unless passed through 

 the intestines of a bird. 



In olden times — long before the birds had cause to dread the invention of 

 gunpowder — the Mistletoe was the chief source of the birdlime which caught 

 them,* and the Mistletoe Thrush (tiirdus viscivorus) in thus making the seed grow, 

 might be said to produce the cause of its own destruction, and hence arose the 

 ancient proverb, "' kIxKt) X^f^' avTrj KaKov." 

 (Turdiis cacat suum malum), or, as the old doggrel expresses it, 

 " The Thrush when he pollutes the bough 

 Sows for himself the seeds of woe." 

 Baudin, Scaliger, and others, more modern writers, have treated this view as 

 fabulous, but have committed a still greater error themselves in fancying it a 



* In Herefordshire and in Italy much birdlime was formerly made from the berries of 

 the Mistletoe. ' London Encychfttdia. 



