226 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 73. 



J. Bs. says pnpers are " said to exist in the 

 family wliicli prove the statement." As it is one 

 of scandal against a female, and that female a 

 great sovereign, should he not ascertain the fact 

 of the existence of any such paper, before sup- 

 porting the scandal, and not leave a tradition to 

 be supported by another tradition, when a little 

 trouble might show whether any papers exist, and 

 when found what their value may be. Q. G. 



THE MISTLETOE ON THE OAK. 



(Vol. ii., pp. 16^}. 214. ; Vol. iii., p. 192.) 

 From having been a diligent searcher for the 

 mistletoe on the oak, I may be allowed to mnke a 

 few I'emarks upon the question. Is it ever found 

 now on other trees ? Now, it not only occurs 

 abundantly on other trees, but it is exceedingly 

 rare on the oak. This may be gathered from 

 the following list, in which numbers have been 

 used to express comparative frequency, as near 

 as my observations enable me to form a judg- 

 ment : — 



On Native Trees. 



Apple (various sorts) - - - 25 



]'<iplar (mostly the black) - - - 20 



Wliitothorn - - - - 10 



Lime - - - - - 4 



Majjle - - - - - .T 



Willow - - - - -2 



Oak - - - - - 1 



On Foreign Trees. 

 Sycamore - ... . - 1 



Kobiiiia - - - - - - 1 



From this it would appear that, notwithstanding 

 the British Oak, grows everywhere,' it is at 

 present only favoured by the companionship of the 

 mistletoe in equal ratio with two compaiatively 

 recently introduced trees. Indued such olyection 

 does this parasite manifest to the brave old tree, 

 even in his teens, that, notwithstanding a newly- 

 planted line of mixed trees will become speedily 

 attacked by it, the oak is certain to be left in his 

 pride alone. 



I have, however, seen the mistletoe on the oak 

 in two instances during my mueh wandering about 

 amid country scenes, CB|x;eially of Gloucester and 

 Worcester, two great mistletoe counties. One 

 was pointed out to me by my friend, Mr. Lees, 

 fi-om whom we may expect much valuable in- 

 fi)rmation on this subject, in his forthcomin,; 

 edition of the Botanical Looker-out — it was on a 

 young tree, perhaps of fifty years, in Eastnor Park, 

 on the Malvern chain. Tiie other example is at 

 Frampton-on-Severn, to which the President of 

 the Cotteswold Naturalists' Club, T. B. L. Baker, 

 Esq., and myself, were taken by Mr. Clili'ord, of 

 Frampton. The tree is full a century old, and 

 the branch, on which was a goodly bunch of 



the pai-asite, numbered somewhere about forty 

 years. That the plant is propagated by seeds 

 there can, I think, be but little doubt, as the 

 seeds are so admirably adapted for the peculiar 

 circumstances under which alone they can propa- 

 gate ; and the want of attention to the facts con- 

 nected therewith, is probably the cause why the 

 propagation of the mistletoe by ai'tificial means is 

 usually a failure. 



I shoidd be inclined to think that the mistletoe 

 never was abundant on the oak ; so that it may 

 be that additional sanctity was conferred on the 

 Viscum guerneum on account of its great rarity. 



James Buckman. 



Cirencester. 



Mistletoe upon Oak (Vol. ii., p. 214.). — Besides 

 the mistletoe-bearing oak mentioned by your cor- 

 respondent, there is one in Lord Somers' park, 

 near Malvern. It is a very fine plant, though it 

 has been injured by sight-seeing marauders. 



H. A. B. 



Trinity College, Cambridge. 



Mistletoe (Vol. ii., pp. 163., 214.). — Do I un- 

 derstand your correspondent to ask whether 

 mistletoe is found now except on oaks ? The 

 answer is, as at St. Paul's, " Circumspice." Just 

 go into the country a little, The difliculty is 

 generally supposed to be to find it on the oak. 



C. B. 



UNIVEHSALITT OF THE MAXIM, " LAVOKA COME 

 SE TU," ETC. 



(Vol. iii., p. 188.) 



I have not been able to trace this sentence to it3 

 source, but it would most probably be ibund in 

 that admirable book, Monosiiiii Floris Itulicce Lin- 

 gua:, 4to , Venet., 1G04 ; or in Torriano's Diction- 

 urij of Italian Proverhs and Phrases, folio, Lond., 

 1GG6, a book of which Dujilessis doubts the ex- 

 istence ! ^lost of Jeremy Taylor's citations from 

 the Italian yre provcrljial phrases. Your corre- 

 spondi'nt has probably copied the phrase as it stands 

 in Bohn's edition of the Holy Living and Di/ing, 

 but there is a trilling variation as it stands in the 

 first edition oi Holy Living, 1(350 : — 



" Lavora come se tu hrivesti a campar ogni hora : 

 Adora come se tu havesti a morir alhora." 



The universality of this maxim, in ages and 

 countries remote from each other, is remarkable. 

 Thus we find it in the Hitopai>esa : 



" A wise man should think upon knowledge and 

 wealth as if he were uiulecaying and immortal. He 

 shoidtl practise duty as if he were seized by tlie hair of 

 his liead by Death." — Johnson's Translatinn, Intr. '.i. 



So, Democratis of Abdera, more sententiously : 



" OuTois ■KfipSi ^v, iis KoX vKi'yov KOI -noKhv xP^^ov 

 Pt'j>a6ij.(i'ns." 



Then descending to the fifteenth century, we 



