berries of Misseltoe bruised and strained into oile and drunken, hath presently and forthwith rid a grievous 
and sore stitch.” 
In the history of Greece, says the author of “ the Vegetable World,” we meet in very early times with 
the famous oracle of Jupiter, that is, a place where it was said his voice was heard, at the oaks of Dodona. 
And, in Gaul and Britain, we find the highest regard paid to this tree and its mistletoe, under the direction 
of the Druids — the oak-prophets, or priests. They thought the mistletoe was sent from heaven, as a sign 
that God had chosen the tree on which it grew ; and, though rarely found, it was treated, as soon as dis- 
covered, with great ceremony. They styled it, indeed, the curer of all ills, and, having prepared under the 
tree feasts and sacrifices, brought to it two white bulls, whose horns were then, for the first time, tied. 
After this, the priest, attired in a white robe, ascended the tree, and, with a golden pruning-hook, cut off 
the misletoe, which was received in a white sheet. Victims were then sacrificed, with many prayers for the 
blessing of God on his own gift. And, says Parkhurst, “ Is it possible for a Christian to read this account 
without thinking of Him who was the desire of all nations, of the man whose name was the branch, who 
had indeed no father on earth, but came down from heaven ; was given to heal all our ills ; and, after being 
cut off through the divine counsel, was wrapped in fine linen, and laid in the sepulchre for our sakes ?” 
The following extract is from “ The Sentiment of Flowers,” 
“ All your temples strow 
With laurel green, and sacred mistletoe.” 
Gay. 
The mistletoe is a parasitical plant, growing chiefly on the summit of fruit trees, though the proud oak 
sometimes becomes its slave, and yields its own substance to support it. “The Druids sent round their 
attendant youths with branches of the mistletoe, to announce the entrance of the new year ;” and something 
like this custom is said still to be continued in France ; and our English friends, who maintain the Christ- 
mas customs and gambols of our ancestors, need not that we should remind them of the part it plays in 
those festivities. The Druids had a species of adoration for a weakness so superior to strength. The 
tyrant subjugator of the oak appeared to them alike formidable to men and gods ; and they related the 
following story in support of their opinion “One day. Balder told his mother Friga, that he had dreamed 
he should die. Friga conjured the elements — earth, air, fire, and water ; metals, maladies, animals, and 
serpents, that they should do no evil to her son ; and her conjurations were so powerful that nought could 
resist them. Balder, therefore, went to the combat of the gods, and fought in the midst of showers of 
arrows without fear. Loake, his enemy, wished to know the reason ; he took the form of an old woman, 
and sought out Friga. He addressed her thus: ‘In the midst of our fight, the arrows and rocks fall on 
your son without hurting him/ ‘ I believe it,’ replied Friga, ‘all those substances are sworn to me ; there 
is nothing in nature which can hurt him. I have obtained this favour from every thing which has power. 
There is only one little plant that I cared not to ask, because it appeared too feeble to injure ; it was growing 
upon the bark of an oak, with scarcely any root ; it lives without soil, and is called mistletoe. So spake 
Friga. Loake immediately ran and found the plant, and entering the assembly of the gods, while they were 
fighting against the invulnerable Balder (for their games are combats,) he approached the blind Heda. 
‘Why,’ said he, ‘do you not contend with the arrows of Balder ?’ ‘I am blind,’ he answered ‘and have no 
arms.’ Loake presented to him the mistletoe, and said ‘ Balder is before thee.’ The blind Heda discharged 
the arrow, and Balder fell pierced and slain. Thus, the invulnerable offspring of a goddess was killed by an 
arrow of mistletoe, shot by a blind man.’’ Such is the origin of the respect borne by the Gauls towards 
this shrub. 
This plant being yellow, Virgil compares it to the golden bough of the sybil. 
‘ Quale solet sylvis brumali tempore viscum 
Fronde virere nova, quod non sua seminat arbos, 
Et croceo foetu teretes circumdare truncos ; 
Tabs erat species auri frondentis opaca 
Ilice.’* 
As the mistletoe, which its own tree does not sow, grows green with new foliage amid the woods in 
winter, and surrounds the round trunks with its saffron fruit, such was the appearance of the budding gold 
on the dark ilex. 
In the language of flowers, the Mistletoe signifies / surmount all difficulties. 
* A£n. vi. 1. 205. 
