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III.— THE OCCURRENCE OF THE MISTLETOE 

 ON THE OAK. 



The Viscum Album but rarely "gains a settlement" on the 

 Oak tree — as seldom in our own day, as in the Druidical times of 

 old, when its very rarity heightened the veneration with which 

 it was regaided when found. "Est autem id varum ad- 



modum inventum, et repertum magna religione petitur" says 

 Pliny in his Natural History, (lib. xvi. c. 44.) In an excellent 

 note by Dr. Giles in his translation of "Richard of Cirencester," 

 (p. 432.] he gives the opinion of Dr. Daubeny, that Mistletoe- 

 growing oaks were exterminated after the Druids were destroy- 

 ed." [N. & Q. Vol. ii.] It is highly probable that this was the 

 case, but since all their oaks too have been gone centuries since 

 it can make no difference as to its occurrence at the present 

 time. Whatever may be the conditions necessary for the ger- 

 mination and growth of the Mistletoe on the oak, they must be 

 Buch as rarely coincide, or it certainly would be much more com- 

 mon in this County. Oak may be considered the weed of Here- 

 fordshire, Oak timber and Oak bark form two of our chief ex- 

 ports. Oak woods and Oak trees border Mistletoe-abounding- 

 orchards very generally, and the trees themselves are often 

 mingled in very close alliance : indeed it would not be too much 

 to say, from the great abundance of Oaks in the vicinity of orch- 

 ards, that the birds must sow the Mistletoe seeds upon them 

 more frequently than upon any other kind of tree in the County. 

 Nevertheless so far as is known, there are but two instances 

 of its growth on the Oak in Herefordshire, the one in Eastnor 

 Park, which has been so well known for many 3'ears, and the 

 other in an outlying district of the County at Tedstone Delamere, 

 discovered by Dr. Craddock in 1857. 



