CHAP. CV. 



CORYLA'CE^-. yUE'RCUS. 



1831 



oak trees, are chiefly mosses ; and, in very moist climates, Polypodiuni viilgare, 

 and some other ferns. It is proper to state, however, that these phints can- 

 not be considered as peculiar to the oak ; but tliat they are merely found on 

 that tree more commonly than on any other, on account of the denseness of its 

 shade during summer. Some oak trees, among the hills 

 of Westmoreland and Cumberland (for example, in Leven's 

 Grove, and in the grounds of the poet Wordsworth at 

 Rydal), have the trunks and main branches quite green, 

 with the foliage of P. vulgare; and others covered with a 

 mossy envelope of different species of //ypnum. The 

 mosses most commonly found on trees are, i/ypnum den- 

 ticulatum Eng. Bot.,t. 1260., and our fig. 1656, H. tenel- 

 lum, H. serpens, H. lutescens Eng. Bot., t. 1301., H. 

 Pohl/, H. curviitum, H. confertum, and H. cupressiforme 

 Eng. Bot., t. I860., and our fig. 1658., Leskea incurvata, 

 L. Vrichomanoides, and L. coniplanata Eng. Bot., t. 1492., and our^^'. 1657., 

 Dalt6n/« heteromalla, Neckera crispa, N. pinnata, and various others ; but 

 none of these can be considered as exclusively confined 

 to the oak. 



The mistletoe is the only truly parasitic plant which 

 grows on the oak ; but it is so rarely found on it in Eng- 

 land, that many persons have doubted the fact of that 

 ,,,„ tree ever having been its habitat. 

 The mistletoe of the oak is, how- 

 ever, so intimately connected 

 with all the traditions of the ^ , 

 druids, that we cannot doubt ^"^ 

 the fact of its having been ac- 

 tually found by them ; especially 

 as we are told that its being discovered was so rare an 

 occurrence, as to be attended by rejoicings. We also 

 find that the apple tree was considered a sacred tree, and 

 that apple orchards were always appended to the oak 

 groves of the druids. (See Davis's Celtic Researches, &c.) 

 that the mistletoe grows very freely on the apple tree, the seeds of the mistletoe 

 might very naturally be conveyed from the apple orchard to the adjoining 

 oaks, and some might vegetate on them. After numerous enquiries on this 

 subject, we succeeded in March, 1837, in learning from Mr. D. Beaton, gardener 

 at Hafiield, near Ledbury, that Mr. Pitt, a small farmer in that neighbourhood, 

 recollected seeing it on an oak tree near Ledbury, adjoining to which there 

 was a willow tree loaded with mistletoe, from which the oak was supposed to 

 have been supplied. This oak was cut down in 1831. Through the kindness 

 of Mr. Moss, gardener to Earl Somers, at Eastnor Castle, Mr. Beaton received 

 an account of an oak tree growing near the castle, on which there are several 

 plants of mistletoe, one of which is of great age, and its branches occupy a 

 space nearly 5 ft. in diameter. The mistletoe on the oak grows with greater 

 vigour, and has broader leaves, than that which has grown on the apple; and 

 its stem does not form that swelling at its junction with the oak, that it does 

 on most other trees. Of these facts we had ocular demonstration from a 

 large and handsome specimen of mistletoe growing from an oak branch, sent 

 to us in March, 1837, by Mr. Beaton ; and which, in order that the fact of 

 the mistletoe growing on the oak might no longer be doubted by botanists or 

 gardeners, we exhibited on April 4th, 1837, at the meetings of the Horticul- 

 tural Society, and of the Linnaean Society, held on that day. (See Gard. Mag., 

 vol. xiii. p. 206.) Subsequently, Mr. Brackenridge, a Scotch gardener, who 

 is just returned from Berlin, has informed us that he saw the mistletoe on 

 several oak trees, near Lobsens, in the Duchy of Posen, about 1 1 miles on 

 the south side of the town of Posen, near to an old cloister, the property of 

 M. Ebers, to whom Mr. Brackenridge was, for a short time, gardener. Lo- 

 ranthus europacus, a parasite closely resembling the Tiscum album, is fre- 



1G58 



Now, as we know 



