THE ANGLO-SAXON HERBALS 31 



generally identified with lycopodium selago, of which Pliny tells us 

 vaguely that it was " like savin." The gathering of it had to be 

 accompanied in Druid days with mystic ceremonies. The Druid 

 had his feet bare and was clad in white, and the plant could not 

 be cut with iron, nor touched with the naked hand. So great 

 were its powers that it was called " the gift of God." Nor is 

 there any mention in Saxon plant lore of the use of sorbus 

 aucuparia, which the Druids planted near their monolithic 

 circles as protection against unseen powers of darkness. There 

 is, however, one prescription which may date back to the Roman 

 occupation of Britain. It runs thus : " Take nettles, and seethe 

 them in oil, smear and rub all thy body therewith ; the cold will 

 depart away." 1 It has always been believed that one of the 

 varieties of nettle (Urtica pilulifera) was introduced into England 

 by the Roman soldiers, who brought the seed of it with them. 

 According to the tradition, they were told that the cold in 

 England was unendurable ; so they brought these seeds in order 

 to have a plentiful supply of nettles wherewith to rub their 

 bodies and thereby keep themselves warm. Possibly this 

 prescription dates back to that time. 



From what hoary antiquity the charms and incantations 

 which we find in these manuscripts have come down to us we 

 cannot say. Their atmosphere is that of palaeolithic cave- 

 drawings, for they are redolent of the craft of sorcerers and they 

 suggest those strange cave markings which no one can decipher. 

 Who can say what lost languages are embedded in these unin- 

 telligible words and single letters, or what is their meaning? 

 To what ancient ceremonies do they pertain, and who were the 



apple and the pear are closely related, mistletoe very rarely grows on the 

 pear tree, and there is no case on record of mistletoe planted on a pear tree 

 by human hands surviving the stage of germination. There are, it is true, 

 two famous mistletoe pears in this country one in the garden of Belvoir 

 Castle and the other in the garden of Fern Lodge, Malvern, but in both cases 

 the seed was sown naturally. It grows very rarely on the oak, and this possibly 

 accounts for the special reverence accorded by the Druids to the mistletoe 

 oak. 1 Leech Book, I. 81. 



