20 WILD FLOWERS. 



screens on Avhich paintings are so often made, 

 are formed of it. In the pretty Tunbridge- 

 ware, which is ingeniously made of various 

 woods, the holly is extensively used. The 

 viscous substance found in the bark, is used for 

 birdlime : and the tough leaves afford food for 

 the caterpillars of one of our loveliest butter- 

 flies — the azure blue insect, which is known to 

 naturalists as the Papilio Argioliis. 



The silvery modest mistletoe {Viscum album) 

 cheers the wood, and with the holly adorns our 

 houses. The Druids, probably, first used these 

 plants as the indoor winter ornament ; and we 

 dress our houses now, because the custom 

 reminds us of the olden days ; and on the same 

 principle 



" As the ear 

 May love the ancient poet's simple rhyme, 

 Or feel the secret chami of minster's distant chime." 



"We use the mistletoe chiefly at Christmas ; 

 but, even a few centuries ago, its branches were 

 carried about from house to house, on the first 

 day of January, by young men and maidens, as a 

 new year's gift of friendship ; and to the present 

 time, the French preserve a relic of this practice. 

 Our forefathers, at a very early period, che- 

 rished the mistletoe as a plant which, when 

 gathered with some superstitious rites, would 

 cure disease, avert the influences of the enl 

 eye, and preserve from many dangers; and 

 earlier still, when our country lay in all the 

 darkness and ignorance of Druidical super- 

 stition, this pl.ant was reverenced and almost 

 worshipped, and associated with practices at 



