MAGICAL PLANTS 91 



The origin of this superstition is said to lie in the 

 fact that the country people, much struck with the 

 affinity that exists between the animal and the 

 vegetable world, came in course of time to think 

 that the same demon caused the diseases of plants 

 as of man. Therefore, in order to safeguard man- 

 kind, it was necessary to confine the demon in the 

 plant. 



A very old belief existed that diseases could be 

 got rid of by burying them; and even in the tenth 

 century there is a case of epilepsy cured by means 

 of a buried peach-blossom, so Ratherius relates. 



The Druids, besides being priests, prophets, and 

 legislators, were also physicians, and they were well 

 acquainted with the means of producing trances 

 and ecstasies; and as one of their chief medical 

 appliances they made use of the mistletoe, which 

 they gathered at appointed times, with very 

 solemn ceremonies, and considered it as a special 

 gift from heaven. This plant grew on the oak, 

 the sacred tree of the Celts and Druids; it was 

 held in the highest reverence, and both priests 

 and people regarded it as divine. 



" The mystic Mistletoe, 



Which has not root, and cannot grow. 

 Or prosper but by that same tree 

 It clings to." 



The sacred oak itself was thought to possess 

 certain magical properties in calling forth the 

 spirit of prophecy, and so we find the altars of the 

 Druids were often erected beneath some venerated 

 oak tree in the secluded recesses of the sacred 

 grove. The Greeks had their prophetic oaks that 



