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are alluded to by Virgil in his j^neid, as well as by Ovid and other 

 ancient writers. Albertus Magnus states that the Mistletoe, which 

 the Chaldseans called Luperax, the Greeks Esifena, and the Latins 

 Viscus Querci, like the herb Martagon (Moonwort), possessed the pro- 

 perty of opening all locks. The Druids called it All-heal, and 

 represented it as an antidote to all poisons, and a cure for all diseases. 

 When there were no longer any Druids in England left to gather 

 the holy plant with the customary sacred rites, it was gathered by 

 the people themselves, with a lack of due solemnity, so that, 

 according to Aubrey, this want of reverence met with miraculous 

 punishment. He relates how some ill-advised folk cut the Mistletoe 

 from an Oak, at Norwood, to sell to the London apothecaries : 

 "And one fell lame shortly after; soon after each of the others 

 lost an eye; and a rash fellow, who ventured to fell the Oak 

 itself, broke his leg very shortly afterwards." At this time, the 

 powder of an Oak-Mistletoe was deemed an infallible cure for 

 epilepsy; and Culpeper, the astrological herbalist, prescribed 

 the leaves and berries of this precious plant, given in powder 

 for forty days together, as a sure panacea for apoplexy, palsy, 

 and falling sickness. Clusius affirmed that a sprig of the sacred 

 plant worn round the neck was a talisman against witchcraft, 

 always providing that the bough had not been allowed to touch 



earth after being gathered. In the West of England, there is 



a tradition that the Cross was made of Mistletoe, which, until 

 the time of the Crucifixion, had been a noble forest tree, but was 

 thenceforth condemned to exist only as a mere parasite. Culpeper 

 remarks that it was sometimes called lignum sanctcs cruets — wood of 

 the holy cross — from a belief in its curative virtues in cases of 

 consumption, apoplexy, and palsy — "not only to be inwardly taken, 

 but to be hung at their neck." In Sweden, Oak-Mistletoe is sus- 

 pended in the house to protecft it from fire and other injuries; a 

 knife with an Oak-Mistletoe handle is supposed by the Swedes to 

 ward oif the falling sickness : for other complaints, a piece of this 

 plant is hung round the patient's neck, or made into a finger-ring. 



MOLY. — The Moly was a magical plant, beneficent in its 

 nature, which Homer tells us, in the ' Odyssey,' was given by Mercury 

 to Ulysses to enable him successfully to withstand and overcome 

 the enchantments of the sorceress Circe, and obtain the restoration 

 of his comrades whom the witch-goddess had by her enchantments 

 transformed into swine. Ulysses, distressed at the fate of his com- 

 panions, was visited by Mercury, who promised to give him a plant 

 of extraordinary powers, which should baffle the spells of Circe ; 



" Thus while he spoke, the sovereign plant he drew 

 Where on th' all-bearing earth unmark'd it grew, 

 And show'd its nature and its wondrous power : 

 Black was the root, but milky white the flower ; 

 Moly the name, to mortals hard to find, 

 But all is easy to th' ethereal kind." — Fo/e. 



