330 



It grew some years since on the lower bough of an Oak in the Vale of Neath, 

 Glamorganshire, about two miles below Aberpergwm House, but the Oak was 

 afterwards blown down in a storm. 



It grew on an Oak at Mersham Hatch near Ashford, Kent, where the tree 

 was cut down : it grew on another Oak, at Ledbury, which was also cut down 

 accidentally : and it also has grown upon several other Oaks, if the most positive 

 statements of trustworthy intelligent people are to be relied on ; but it is unneces- 

 sary now to mention them further, since they have never been noticed publicly, 

 and are admitted no longer to exist. 



Mr. Edwin- Lees (Phytologist 1851, p. 357) thinks " that Mistletoe occurs 

 much more frequently on the Oak than is generally imagined, but that the instances 

 are not made known." The present enquiry about it, gives a result precisely the 

 reverse. The belief in its frequent occiurrence is very general, it is the fact that 

 fails. Many persons have seen it, and are sure of it, but no one can show the tree 

 with the Mistletoe on it. Time after time have I followed up the most precise 

 statements to my repeated disappointment. " The Mistletoe on the Oak, 

 writes an energetic searcher for it in Monmouthshire, is like a ghost, it vanishes 

 into thin air when you try to grasp it ; everybody has seen it long ago, but the 

 tree is always cut down, or somehow or other the result is — nil." — Most wood- 

 wards will tell you, and in good faith too, that they have seen it, and indeed will 

 generally mention the exact tree, and the place where it grows, but the result of 

 their further examination has always been the same : for some cause or other, 

 the instance fails, and the Mistletoe can never be shewn on the Oak. The tree 

 has been felled, or blown down, or it may be, the isolated bunch of wild ivy, or 

 honeysuckle which deceived them, is revealed now the leaves are off the trees. 

 Or perchance, where nothing is found, as most frequently happens, they have been 

 misled by a cluster of small twigs from the Oak branch itself, and indeed, at certain 

 periods of the year they do resemble Mistletoe more closely than would be 

 credited by those who have not closely observed them. In some instances the 

 mistake has arisen from one tree being intermingled with another, the Mistletoe 

 bush is in the Oak tree, but it is found to be upon a branch of Maple, or Thorn, 

 or Apple tree. 



I cannot do better than insert here the following lively passage from the 

 letter of one of our members. It shews at once, very graphicall}', his own zeal in 

 the pursuit of science, and the caution essentially necessary in dealing with facts 

 of rare occurrence. I regret that the excellent sketch sent with it must be omitted. 

 " You, of course, will be particular in verifying every case of its occurrence on the 

 oak, and the following instance of my experience will only be valuable to you in 

 proportion to your capacity to enjoying the spectacle of paiti in others. After 

 our Annual Meeting, I was staying with a friend whom I knew to have a very 

 excellent practical acquaintance with Natural History. I asked if he had met 

 with Mistletoe on the Oak. He at once said he knew of one example which he 

 hr.d discovered himself two years before. It was growing on a scraggy btish of 



