6 CHAPTER!.. 
fecrated^ mifieltoe was an antidote to poifo0 
and prevented fterility 
The mi[jeltoe perhaps, is, of thefe plants,, 
the only one fully afcertained at this time. 
Its parafitical growth, the preference 
which the Druids gave to that which grew 
on the oak, affifted by the defcriptions the 
antients have left of it, will fufSciently juf- 
tify the application to the vifcum of the 
moderns. May I not add, that probably, 
amidft the manifold virtues antiently af- 
cribed to this plant, its power of curing 
the falling-ficknefs, which has accompa- 
nied it almoil to the prefent time, is the 
remnant of druidical ufe and tradition ? 
The vervahy after previous libations of 
honey, was to be gathered at the rifing of 
the dog-ftar ; when neither fun nor moon 
ilione ; with the left hand only; after de- 
fcribing a circle round the plant, &c. ; and, 
thus prepared, it vanquiflied fevers, and 
other dillempers j was an antidote to the 
bite of ferpents, and a charm to conciliate 
friendfhip ^f-. 
* PUny^ lib. xvi. c. 44. 
t Ik lib. j^xv. c, 9. 
With 
