63 



The comparative absence of mistletoe on pear trees is often 

 remarked. Mistletoe on pear trees have, however, been observed 

 at Belvoir Castle Gardens and at Bryngwyn near Hereford. 



The most famous host plant of the mistletoe is undoubtedly 

 the oak. It is really very rarely seen on that tree. In the whole 

 of England there are probably not more than two or three dozen 

 examples at the present time. There is no mention of a mistletoe- 

 bearing oak in Dorset. The only Hampshire oak with a mistle- 

 toe, of which I have a record, is in Hackwood Park, near Basing- 

 stoke. The first notice of this appeared in the "Leisure Hour" 

 in 1873. Through the kindness of the Rev. G. Sampson, of 

 Ramsdell Vicarage, I have received two recent photographs of 

 the tree bearing a bunch of Hampshire mistletoe. Last year 

 Miss Ida Roper, F.L.S., was fortunate enough to discover a 

 mistletoe on an oak in the Leigh Woods, overlooking the Somer- 

 set side of the Avon, near Bristol. In Elwes' and Henry's great 

 work, "The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland" (1907), there 

 is published a list of twenty-three trees on which mistletoe had 

 been reported during the last fifty years. 



Mistletoe in Ancient Relgion and in Medicine, 



The mistletoe has occupied a prominent position in ancient 

 religion, and there are numerous myths, legends and superstitions 

 associated with it. 



It is mentioned by Professor Frazer that of all European 

 trees none has such claims as the oak to be considered as pre- 

 eminently the sacred tree of the Aryans. Its worship is attested 

 for all the great branches of the Aryan stock. When the mistle- 

 toe was found on an oak it was the object of superstitious venera- 

 tion all over Europe. It was worshipped by the Druids as we 

 learn from a famous passage of Pliny, who' said " The Druids, 

 for so they call their wizards, esteem nothing more sacred than 

 the mistletoe and the tree on which it grows, provided only that 

 the tree is an oak . . they believe that whatever grows on 

 the oak is sent from heaven . . on the sixth day of the moon 

 a priest clad in a white robe climbs the tree and with a golden 

 sickle cuts the mistletoe, which is caught in a white cloth." They 

 believed that a potion prepared from the mistletoe would confer 

 fertility and that the plant was a remedy against all poison. It 

 was called the "all healer." With this belief of the Gauls and 

 Britons as to the wonderful medicinal properties of 'mistletoe 

 Prof. Frazer mentions a similar belief of the modern Ainos of 

 Japan. Whatever may be the origin of these beliefs and prac- 

 tices concerning the mistletoe it is accepted that they have their 

 analogies in the folk-lore of modern European peasants. One 

 of the most interesting legends associated with the mistletoe is 

 of Scandinavian origin. 



The mistletoe is sometimes referred to as the Golden Bough. 

 Perhaps the name may have arisen from the rich golden yellow 



