200 Sandalwood (Santalacece) 



against anything whatsoever that had its source in either 

 of the four elements, fire, air, earth, or water. But his 

 enemy Loke, the Spirit of Evil, made an arrow out of 

 mistletoe, which grows from none of these things, and 

 with this arrow Balder was slain. 



The Druids held in the highest veneration whatever 

 grew on the oak ; especially they reverenced the mistletoe. 

 When it was found, two fat bulls were sacrificed beneath 

 it, and a priest, clothed in white, cut it down with a 

 golden knife. 



Traces of the ancient esteem for the mistletoe are 

 still found in old English and German customs, such as 

 "kissing under the mistletoe," and its various uses at the 

 Christmas-time. Its sprays were supposed to have 

 magical powers ; they were used as charms. 



There is a tradition that the cross was made from the 

 wood of the mistletoe, which up to that time was a large 

 tree, but then was condemned to live for evermore as a 

 parasite. 



29. Family SANTALACE^. (Sandalwood Fam.) 

 Genus PYRULARIA, Michx. (Oil-Nut) 



From a Latin word meaning " pear," because of the shape of its fruit. 



Fig- 93- Oil-Nut. Buffalo-Nut. P. piibera, Michx. 



Flowers, small, greenish, in short, terminal, few-flowered 

 spikes. Corolla, wanting. Calyx, five-cleft, some- 

 times of two kinds on separate plants. Staminate 

 flowers, with five stamens opposite the sepals ; pistil- 

 late with the one style short and thick, and the seed- 

 case adherent to the calyx, excepting at its flat 

 summit, one-celled, and two- to four-seeded. May. 



