THE MISTLETOE IN HEREFORDSHIRE. 313 
Mr. Edwin Lees (‘ Phytologist,’ 1851, p. 357) thinks “that Mis- 
tletoe occurs much more frequently on the Oak than is generally ima- 
gined, but that the instances are not made known." The present in- 
quiry about it gives a result precisely the reverse. Time after time 
have I followed up the most precise statements, to my repeated disap- 
pointment. “ The Mistletoe on the Oak,” writes an energetic searcher 
for it in Monmouthshire, “is like a ghost, it vanishes into thin air when 
you try to grasp it; everybody has seen it long ago, but the tree is 
always cut down, or, somehow or other, the result is—nil.” Most 
woodwards will tell you, and in good faith too, that they have seen it, 
and, indeed, will generally mention the exact tree and the place where 
it grows, but the result of their further examination has always been 
the same,—for some cause or other the instance fails, and the Mistletoe 
can never be shown on the Oak. The tree has been felled or blown 
down, or it may be the isolated bunch of wild Ivy or Honeysuckle, - 
or a cluster of small Oak branches has deceived them. 
A writer in the * Quarterly Review’ speaks of the Mistletoe as 
« deserting the Oak’? in modern times. “It is now so rarely found 
on that tree, as to have led to the suggestion that we must look for the 
Mistletoe of the Druids, not in the Viscum album of our own trees 
and orchards, but in the Loranthus Luropeus, which is frequently 
found on Oaks in the south of Europe.” It seems to me that a very 
unnecessary confusion has been created between the plants, and I pur- 
posely avoid entering further into the subject for the reason given in 
the Review. ‘There is no proof that the Loranthus ever grew further 
north than at present, whilst the Mistletoe figures not only in the tra- 
. ditions of the Celts, but also in those of northern nations.” 
IV.—THE ROMANCE OF THE MISTLETOE. 
* When the Romans first invaded Britain,” says Dr. Henry (Hist. of 
Gt. Britain, vol. i. p. 136), ** the inhabitants of it were famous for their 
superior knowledge of the principles, and their great zeal for the rites of 
their religion." This circumstance we learn from the best authority, 
Julius Cæsar, who informs us “ that such of the Gauls as were desirous 
of being thoroughly instructed in their religion, usually took a journey 
into Britain for that purpose,” who were themselves professed Druids. 
An old poem by a Celtic bard and professed Druid, the ‘ Chair of Ta- 
liesin’ (* Kadeir Taliesin °), furnishes a long list of the apparatus requi- 
