196 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



Although excluded from ecclesiastical edifices for reasons very difficult to discover, 

 the Mistletoe still holds its place in the esteem of the people, if not in their veneration, 

 and there is scarcely a house or cottage that has not its bunch of Mistletoe at 

 Christmas time. In some counties the Mistletoe is brought in with the new year, and 

 does not come with the holly to celebrate Christmas festivities. Until the close of the 

 sixteenth century, Mistletoe does not appear to have been considered a Christmas 

 evergreen. "We have Christmas carols in praise of holly and ivy," says Timbs 

 {Tilings not Generally Known, 1st series, p. 159), "of even earlier date than the 

 fifteenth century ; but allusion to Mistletoe as a Christmas evergreen can scarcely be 

 found for two centuries later, or before the time of Herrick : — 

 " Down with the rosemary, and so, 

 Down with the baies and Mistletoe ; 

 Down with the holly, ivie, all, 

 Wherewith ye dressed the Christmas Hall." 



Writers on this subject are very strong in protesting against the notion that in 

 olden times the Mistletoe was ever recognized as a Christmas guest. Sir Walter Scott 

 has been quoted as an authority for this belief, but his ignorance of the customs of the 

 Mistletoe-growing counties, it is said, led him into error. His Introduction to the 

 sixth canto of " Marmion" probably has, and will do much to throw discredit on the 

 apparently well-founded assertion that ancient custom secured Mistletoe expressly for 

 the new year. 



" England was merry England, when 

 Old Christmas brought his sports again. 



The damsel donn'd her kirtle sheen ; 



The hall was dress'd with holly green, 



Forth to the wood did merry men go 



To gather in the Mistletoe." 

 Had a single sprig of Mistletoe grown in the domain of Abbotsford, we may 

 safely say that the two last lines would never have been written. 



Mistletoe has now actually become an established export from the counties where 

 it grows ; and Dr. Bull gives us, in his interesting paper, au approximate statement 

 of the quantity actually sent out of Herefordshire last December. A total of 

 89 tons 3 cwt. 3 qrs. was sent off by invoice, besides much that found private channels 

 of conveyance ; so that he computes the quantity really to have been about 114 tons 

 of Mistletoe. The price, when delivered at the stations, was from Is. to 5s. a cwt., 

 according to its condition, and the charge for transit about £1. 10s. a tun ; so that the 

 whole expense of delivery may be said to be from £5 to ilii. 10s. per ton. This a 

 to be a very prosaic way of treating the time-honoured Mistletoe, but it is characteristic 

 of the age in which we live ; and. as Dr. Bull says, " It is a practical, commercial, 

 un poetical period, when commonplace railway-trucks cany oil' romance — in the shape 

 of Mistletoe — at so much per ton ! Had ii<>"d Sir Walter Scott lived iu these days, 

 it would never have occurred to him to send his ' merry men ' to the 'woods' for it, 

 where, by the way, they would never bave found it, — but the Mistletoe none the less 

 would have reached him ; and if he had chanced to look over his greengrocer's bill, he 

 would, doubtless, have found some such items as these : — 



"To a bunch of Mistletoe, tine ami full of berries £1 



To pieces of ditto ditto, for decoration 7 G" 



