358 



part of the story has been hashed up from Stukely, Toland, Fos- 

 brooke, and others, over and over again. I must, however, claim 

 " the sick cow " as belonging to me, having received that piece of 

 rustic practice from a sage old farmer, who, howevei", assured me that 

 no other mistletoe but that of the oak would do ! It is perhaps sug- 

 gestive of some trickery or " pious fraud" on the part of the Druids, 

 that Davies tells us, in his ' Celtic Researches,' that the apple-tree 

 was considered by the Druids the next sacred tree to the oak, and 

 that orchards of it were planted by them in the vicinity of their groves 

 of oak. Certainly, as a chance affair, or as an heavenly operation, as 

 mystically given out, an arch-Druid might hunt long enough in a 

 grove of oaks, in the present day, ere he met with the " heaven- 

 descended plant." The farmers of Herefordshire, however, nurse it 

 to such an extent in their orchards, that one might almost imagine 

 they valued it as much as the Druids did. 



Mistletoe on the oak ma}' occur here and there less rarely than is 

 generally imagined ;* but when the oak is in leaf it is very difficult to 

 observe the plant among its thick umbrage. Since the last edition of 

 my ' Botanical Looker-Out ' was put to press, two additional locali- 

 ties have been brought before my notice, and as yet, I believe, unre- 

 corded for the benefit of the botanist. One is at Frarapton-upon- 

 Severn, Gloucestershire, where is a fine young oak with mistletoe 

 upon it, seen in the present spring by my friend Professor Buckman, 

 of the Agricultural College, Cirencester. The Rev. Canon Cradock 

 has been also kind enough to inform me of mistletoe upon two oaks 

 in the sequestered and beautiful parish of Tedstone-de-la-Mere, He- 

 refordshire, of which he is incumbent. Both the oaks are compara- 

 tively young ; and it is remarkable that old trees, such as might 

 almost claim acquaintance with the Druids, are never found with 

 mistletoe upon them in the present day. Tedstone is delightfully 

 situated upon the lofty banks of the celebrated Sapey Brook, and has 

 several claims upou the notice of the naturalist, as well as the 

 impressed stones connected with the legend of St. Catharine's mare 

 and colt. One portion of the parish, interspersed with broken rocks 

 and mossy water-breaks, bears the name of " the Paradise," and it is 

 just such a vicinity as a contemplative man might wish to make a Sel- 

 borne of. It dovetails into Worcestershire not far from Kuightsford's 

 Bridge. 



* A writer in the ' Notes and Queries' for June, 1851, says that " the mistletoe 

 may be often found in the counties of Devon and Somerset growing on oaks," but 

 no precise localities are given. 



