1859.] CHAPTERS ON BRITISH BOTANY. 205 



in a white cloak. Tliey then immolate the victims, offering up 

 their prayers that God will render this gift of his propitious to 

 those to whom he has so granted it. It is the belief with them 

 that the Mistletoe, taken in drink, will impart fecundity to all 

 animals that are barren, and that it is an antidote to all poisons. 

 Such are the religious feelings which we find entertained towards 

 trifling objects among nearly all nations." 



The Cambro-British name of the Mistletoe, viz. Pren Awyr, re- 

 minds the reader of Virgil of the famous lines in the sixth book 

 of the Jilneid, line 205 :— 



" Quale solet sylvis brumali frigore viscum 

 rronde virere riovar,' quod non sua seminat arbos 

 Et croceo fcetu teretes circumdare truncos ; 

 Talis erat species auri frondentis opaca 

 Ilice, sic leni crepitabat bractea vento." 



The Celtic word aur means ' gold ;' and the poet calls the Viscum, 

 Mistletoe, frondens aurum. The branch which the Sibyl enjoined 

 the pious Trojan to take with him when visiting the Tartarean 

 shades, was a production like gold springing out of a deep-green 

 Ilex. The plant had a mystic importance among the Romans as 

 well as among our British ancestors. The golden branch, aureus 

 ramus, that grew concealed on the leafy tree, was dedicated to 

 Proserpine, and its bearer was deemed sure of her protection. 

 The tree on which the most sacred of all mystical plants grew 

 was the peculiar gift of the deity Buanawr, the Quickener. 



The Birch, in Cambro-British Bedwen, in Latin Betula, — both 

 names are from some ancient common radix, now unknown, — 

 was celebrated by the ancient Britons. The feast of the maypole, 

 and that of the phallus among the Greeks, had probably a com- 

 mon origin. The Apple-tree, Afallen, is commemorated in the 

 poems of Llywarch Hen. Its spray and blossoms were the usual 

 emblem of victory. This tree occurs also in the songs of Cerd- 

 din the Caledonian. It is the name of one of this ancient bard's 

 poems, which Mr. Turner contends is a genuine production, and 

 contains the last words or the expiring groans of the northern 

 Druids."^ 



The mystic cauldron, which contained the five sacred herbs 

 ■which were to be boiled during a year and a day, under which 



* Mr. Turner has proved that the 'Avellanan,' or 'Apple-trees,' is a genuine pro- 

 duction of Merddin. 



