MISTLETOE TRIBE 93 



remedies ; and one of them remarks : " Why that shoiild have most 

 virtues thiit grows upon oaks, I know not, unless because it is rarest and 

 hardest to come by ; and our college's opinion is in this contrary to Scrip- 

 ture, which saith, ' God's tender mercies are over all His works ;' and so it 

 is, let the College of Phj'^sicians walk as contrary to Him as they jjlease, and 

 that is as contrary as the east to the west. Clusius affirms that which grows 

 upon pear-trees to be as prevalent, and gives order, that it should not 

 touch the ground after it is gathered ; and also saith, that being hung about 

 the neck, it remedies witchcraft." The herbalists of those days all praise 

 its efficacy as a remedy for epilepsy, as did the Italian physician Matthiolus. 

 Even as lately as the reign of George I., the plant was extolled for its use in 

 this malady; and Sir George Colbatch, a physician, published, in 1719, a 

 "Dissertation concerning Mistletoe," recommending it as a specific in 

 epilepsy. The berries are slightly astringent, and a preparation of these 

 was recommended in later years; but in earlier times a branch of the 

 Mistletoe was merely hung about the neck. At one time it was actually 

 called lignum sancfce crucis — wood of the holy cross ; and the praises bestowed 

 upon it only serve to prove how, in those days of oral tradition, legends 

 gradually adapted themselves to the form of religious belief, till that " more 

 sure word of prophecy " had shed its pure light on the heart and imder- 

 standing, and driven away superstition. 



The Mistletoe is almost the only British truly parasitical plant which 

 bears green leaves, though we have several brown and leafless parasites, like 

 the Broom-rapes. At no time of its existence is this plant nourished by the 

 soil, but derives its sole food from the substance of the tree. Mosses, ferns, 

 and lichens, are often, in popular language, termed parasitic ; but they are 

 nourished entirely by the moisture of the atmosphere, or by the soil lying 

 in the crevices of the bark. The insertion of the roots of Mistletoe into the 

 very substance of living vegetables, and the mode of germination of the 

 plant, have occupied considerable attention among botanists, and are sources 

 of great physiological interest. Dutrochet, as well as other men of science, 

 made numerous experiments on the plant, with a view to ascertain its exact 

 mode of growth. Everyone is aware of the fact, that when a seed is planted 

 in the ground, whatever may be its position in the soil, it will send its leaves 

 and branches upwards, and its roots downwards. Dr. Erasmus Darwin ingeni- 

 ously accounted for this on the principle that the leaf-bud was stimulated by air, 

 and the roots by moisture, and that, therefore, each elongates itself where it 

 is most excited. The experiments made on the Mistletoe confirmed the 

 opinion derived from observations on various plants, that the tendency of 

 the root is always towards the centre of the object on which it grows, and 

 that the young shoots take invariably the opposite direction. Let us plant 

 the seed of the Mistletoe wherever we choose, under a bough, or upon it, 

 or on either side, the root strikes inwards to the centre of the branch, and 

 grows horizontally or laterally, or even shoots upwards, while the stem is 

 produced in the opposite direction. 



The Mistletoe is found, when parasitic on the apple, to contain twice as 

 much potash and five times as much phosphoric acid as the tree itself ; and 

 when growing on the oak, its bark is astringent. It has, however, lost its 



