150 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



a certain sign that tlic tree on which it grew was chosen by the Deity for religious 

 revorenco. So rarely was the mistletoe to be seen on the oak, that when found it 

 was resorted to with the greatest devotion. In the ceremony of cutting it, the 

 Druids used to observe that the moon was just six days old. The festival entertain- 

 ment being made ready under the oak, two white bulls were brought thither and 

 tied to the tree by their horns. This done, the officiating priest, habited in a white 

 vestment, climbed the tree, and with a golden pruning-knife cai-efully separated the 

 mistletoe from the oak on which it grew. It was received in a white woollen cloth 

 by the attendant priests below, who then proceeded to kill the beasts for sacrifice, 

 and make their prayers to their god, that he would bless this his own gift to those to 

 whom they should dispense it. They believed that a decoction of mistletoe was a 

 sovereign remedy for sterility, and a cure for all manner of poisons. At the present 

 time there has been much discussion as to the growth of the mistletoe on the oak, 

 and it is a popular fallacy to believe that it is at all common in such a situation. On the 

 apple-crab and other trees it is constantly seen, but Mr. Jesse, surveyor of Her 

 Majesty's Parks, who made many enquiries on the subject, says that he never could 

 hear of any instance of the mistletoe being found on the oak trees in any of the Royal 

 Parks. Timber merchants have also assured him that they never had seen it on the 

 oak. Some years ago the Society of Arts offered a reward for the discovery of it, 

 and a single instance was found somewhere in Gloucestershire. Subsequently other 

 specimens have been discovered. Dr. Prior suggests that the Qtiercus puhescens, on 

 which the Loranthus, another form of parasitic plant, now grows in the south of 

 Europe, may have once existed in Great Britain, and have afforded the Diniids a 

 means of gathering the fabled mistletoe. 



The ancient Yule-log was always made of oak ; and, according to Professor Burnett, 

 was named after Hu, the Bacchus of the Druids ; others derive it from Baal, Bel, or 

 Yiaoul, the Celtic god of fire, whose festival was kept at Christmas, the time of the 

 Saturnalia. The Druids professed to maintain perpetual fire ; and once every year 

 all the fires belonging to the people were extinguished, to be relighted from the 

 sacred fire of the Druids. This was the origin of the Yule-log, which, even so lately 

 as the beginning of the last century, was used to kindle the Christmas fire. 



The Saxons held their national meetings under the oak ; and the celebrated con- 

 ference between the Saxons and the Britons, after the invasion of the former, was held 

 under the oaks of Dartmoor. The wood of the oak was appropriated to the most 

 memorable uses. King Arthur's round table was made of oak, as was the cradle of 

 Edward III., when he was born at Caernarvon Castle : this sacred wood being chosen 

 in order to conciliate the feelings of the "Welsh, who still retained the prejudices of 

 their ancestors, the Ancient Britons. It was considered unlucky to cut down any 

 celebrated tree, and Evelyn gravely relates a story of two men who cut down the 

 Vicar's Oak, in Surrey ; one losing his eye, and the other breaking his leg, soon after. 

 Among the noble specimens of the oak which adorn our woodland scenery, some of 

 them have singular histories attached to them. There is the historical tree known 

 as the Abbot's Oak, at Woburn Abbey, on the branches of which, according to Stowe 

 and other historians, the abbot and prior of Wobui'n, the vicar of Puddington, and 

 " other contumacious persons," were hanged by order of Henry VIII. 



Queen Elizabeth's Oak, in Hatfield Park, under which she is said to have been 

 sitting when the news of her sister's death was brought to her, is still standing. The 

 " Sidney Oak," at Penshurst Park, is a handsome tree, and would be noticeable apart 

 from its associations. It is said to have been planted to commemorate the birth of 

 Sir Philip Sidney, " whose spirit was too high for the Court, and his integrity too 



