44 NATURE AND WOODCRAFT. 



Mountain-ash, in the past possessed wonderful 

 magical properties, but would seem to have lost 

 its virtues of late. It was a sovereign charm 

 against the evil machinations of witchcraft, and 

 in the North to-day the peasants keep it about 

 their persons, together with " magpie wings 

 and sic-like things," as these are supposed to 

 " guard puir folk fra' harm." It is also hung 

 over doors and stables to neutralize the spells 

 of witches and warlocks. 



Another kind of " myth " connected with 

 trees is frequently due to mistakes of names, 

 or to ignorant tales told to children in their 

 nursery days. Probably every child who has 

 lived within the influence of trees has had pointed 

 out to it the sycamore as the tree into which 

 Zacchasus climbed in his anxiety to see Christ 

 as He passed on his way to Jerusalem. But 

 the Bible " sycamore " is a fig-tree, while ours 

 is a species of maple. 



This is the tree whose leaves are covered 

 with a saccharine excretion known as honey- 

 dew, and usually supposed to be a plant pro- 

 duction. It is, however, an exudation of a 

 species of aphis which haunts the tree. An- 

 other similar "myth" is that the edible and 



