ASH-TKEE. 131 



the father presents the child, and the mother receives it ; 

 an old custom, more honoured in the breach than in the 

 observance, and which is spoken of with just reprehension 

 in one of the Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church, edited 

 by Mr. Thorpe for the JElfric Society : " It is not allowed 

 to any Christian man to fetch his health from any stone, 

 nor from any tree ; unless it be the holy sign of the Rood, 

 nor from any place, unless it be the holy house, wherein 

 the Most High is worshipped." And again, in the ancient 

 laws and institutes of Britain, tree- worshippings and stone- 

 worshippings are denounced as "the craft of the Wicked 

 One, whereby children are drawn through the earth." 



Aged trees have told concerning the grey lichens which 

 cluster on their stems and branches. Some speak proudly 

 of " evanescent nations " which resort to them ; others, of 

 birds and animals that find a storehouse and a home 

 beneath their shelter ; but I shall speak of a small parasitic 

 fungus that pertains to me exclusively, the Spharia fraxinea, 

 or ash sphseria, one of the most curious among its brethren, 



K 2 



