December 25, 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
577 
Chaucer wrote it, Hulfeere, has been taken from the old Norse Ilulfr. 
From the use made of its branches in decorating churches at Christmas 
time the monks, by an easy corruption, bestowed on the Holly the designa¬ 
tion of the Holy Tree. The disciples of Zoroaster, or Fire Worshippers, 
believe that the Holly tree casts no shadow, and both in Persia and India 
they employ an infusion of its leaves for several purposes connected with 
their religious observances. They also sprinkle the face of a newly born 
child with water impregnated with Holly bark. Pliny states that if the 
Holly, or Hulver tree, be planted about a house it will keep away all malign 
spells and enchantments and defend the house from lightning. He also, 
among other marvels, relates that the flowers of the Holly would freeze 
water and would repel poison, and that if a staff of its wood were thrown to 
any animal, even if it did not touch him, it would so influence the animal 
as to cause him to lie down beside it. The custom of decorating houses and 
churches with Holly at Christmas is probably derived from the Romans, 
who were wont to send boughs to their friends during the festival of the 
Saturnalia, which occurred about the same period, and the Oaks being then 
bare of leaves the priests obliged the people to bring in boughs of Holly 
and evergreens. There is little doubt that the early Roman Christians, 
disregarding the Church’s interdiction, introduced the heathen practice of 
decorating their houses with Holly, and in course of time connected it with 
their own faith. There is an old English superstition that elves and fairies 
join the social gatherings at Christmas, and this led to branches being 
hung up in hall and bower in order that the fays might ‘ hang in each leaf 
and cling on every bough during that sacred time when spirits have no 
power to harm.’ This evergreen ‘ Christmas ’ should be taken down on 
Candlemas eve. Herrick says :— 
‘ Down with the Holly and Ivy all, 
Wherewith ye deck the Christmas hall; 
So that the superstitious find 
No one least branch there left behind ; 
For look how many leaves there be 
Neglected there—maids ’tend to me— 
So many goblins ye shall see.’ 
“ De Gubernatis tells us that in certain parts of France, in Switzerland, 
at Bologna, and in other continental countries, there is an old custom 
extant of cutting branches of Holly on Christmas eve, and hanging them 
in houses and stables in the hope of driving away evil spirits and witch¬ 
craft. As the Holly leaf is prickly it repulses and drives away enemies. 
Witches are reputed to detest Holly ; in its name they see but another form 
of the word ‘ holy,’ and its thorny foliage and blood-red berries are sugges¬ 
tive of the most Christian associations. In Northumberland Holly is 
employed in a form of divination. There the prickly variety is called He- 
Holly, and the smooth She-Holly. It is the leaves of the latter only that 
are deemed proper for divining purposes. These smooth leaves must be 
plucked late on a Friday by persons careful to preserve an unbroken silence 
from the time they go out to the dawn of the following morn. The leaves 
must be collected in a three-cornered handkerchief, and on being brought 
home nine of them must be selected, tied with nine knots into the handker¬ 
chief, and plaoed beneath the pillow; then, sleep being obtained, dreams 
worthy of aU credit will attend this rite. In another form of divination a 
maiden places three pails of water on her bedroom floor, then pins to her 
nightdress opposite her heart three leaves of green Holly, and so retires to 
rest. She will be aroused from her first sleep by three terrible yells, 
followed by three horse laughs, after which the form of her future husband 
will appear. If he is deeply attached to her he will change the position of 
the water pails ; if not, he will glide from the room without touching them. 
This spell is only effectual when performed on All Hallowe’en, Christmas 
eve, New Year’s eve, and Beltane, or Midsummer eve." 
“ Mistletoe. —According to Scandinavian mythology, Baldr (the Apollo 
of the North) was rendered by his mother Frigg proof against all injury by 
the four elements, fire, air, earth, and water. Loki, the evil spirit, how¬ 
ever, being at enmity with him, fashioned an arrow out of Mistletoe (which 
proceeded from neither of the elements), and placed it in the hand of Hodr, 
the blind deity, who launched the fatal dart at Baldr, and struck him to the 
earth. The gods decided to restore Baldr to life, and as a reparation for 
his injury the Mistletoe was dedicated to his mother Frigg; whilst, to 
prevent its being again used adversely to her, the plant was placed under 
her sole control so long as it did not touch the earth, the empire of Loki. 
On this account it has always been customai'y to suspend Mistletoe from 
ceilings; and so, whenever persons of opposite sexes pass under it they give 
one another the kiss of peace and love, in the full assurance that this plant 
is no longer an instrument of mischief. Like the Indian Asvattha and the 
northern Rowan, the Mistletoe was supposed to be the embodiment of 
lightning; hence its Swiss name, Donnerdesen, and like them, again, it is 
very generally believed to spring from seed deposited by birds on trees. 
Some naturalists, indeed, say that the seeds will not vegetate until they 
have passed through the stomach of a bird, and so recommend that fowls 
should be caused to eat the seeds, which, after evacuation, should be sown. 
This old belief in the Mistletoe seed being sown by birds is referred to by 
Lord Bacon m his ‘Natural History.’ His lordship says, ‘They have an 
idle tradition that there is a bird called a Missel-bird that feedeth upon a 
seed which many times she cannot digest, and so expelleth it whole with 
her excrement, which, falling upon a bough of a tree that hath some rift, 
putteth forth the Misseltoe.’ 
“ In Druidic times the Mistletoe was regarded as a Divine gift of peculiar 
sanctity, only to be gathered with betitt'ng ceremonies, on the sixth 
day, or at latest on the sixth night, of the sixth moon after the winter 
solstice, when their year commenced. Pliny tells us that ‘ the Druids hold 
nothing more sacred than the Mistletoe and the tree upon which it is 
produced, provided it be an Oak. They make choice of groves of Oak on 
their own account, nor do they perform any of their sacred rites without the 
leaves of these trees, so one may suppose that for this reason they are 
called by the Greek etymology Druids, and whatever Misti-toe prows upon 
the Oak they think is sent from heaven, and is a sign of God Himself as 
having chosen that tree. This, however, is rarely found, but W'hen dis¬ 
covered is treated with great ceremony. They call it by a name which in 
their language signifies the curer of all ills, and, having duly prepared their 
feasts and sacrifices under the tree, they bring to it two white bulls, whose 
horns are then for the first time tied; the priest, dressed in a white robe, 
ascends the tree, and with a golden pruning hook cuts off the Mistletoe, 
which is received into a white sagvm or sheet; then they sacrifice the 
victims, praying that God would bless His own gift to those on whom He 
had bestowed it.’ As the Druids attributed to the Mistletoe marvellous 
curative properties they placed it in water, and distributed this water to 
those who deserved it, to act as a charm against the spells of witches and 
sorcerers. If any portion of this plant came in contact with the earth it 
was considered as ominous of some impending national disaster. 
“ The practice of decorating dwellings with Mistletoe and Holly is un¬ 
doubtedly of Druidic origin. Dr. Chandler states that in the times of the 
Druids the houses were decked with boughs in order that the spirits of the 
forest might seek shelter among them during the bleak winds and frosts of 
winter. Among the Worcestershire farmers there is a very ancient custom 
of taking a bough of Mistletoe and presenting it to the cow’ that first calved 
after New Year’s day, as this offering is presumed to avert ill-luck from the 
dairy. In some provinces of France they preserved for a long period the 
custom of gathering the Mistletoe of the Oak, which they regarded as a 
talisman. Many public documents attest that in the fifteenth and sixteenth 
centuries large gatherings of the country people took place at the fetes held 
in commemoration of the ceremony of the sacred Mistletoe, and which was 
called Auguilanneuf {Gui de Van neuf). In Holstein the peasantry call the 
Mistletoe the ‘ Spectre’s Wand,’ from the supposition that a branch borne 
in the hand will enable the holder not only to see ghosts but to compel 
them to speak. 
“ The magical properties of the Mistletoe are alluded to by Virgil in his 
‘AHneid,’ as well as by Ovid and other ancient writers. Albertus Magnus 
states that the Mistletoe, which the Chaldseans called Luperax, the Greeks 
Esifena, and the Latins Viscus Querci, like the herb Martagon (Moonwort) 
possessed the property of opening all locks. The Druids called it All-heal, 
and represented it as an antidote to all poisons and a cure for all diseases. 
When there were no longer any Druids in England left to gather the holy 
plant with the customary sacred rites, it was gathered by the people them¬ 
selves with a lack of due solemnity, so that, according to Aubrey, this want 
of reverence met with miraculous punishment. He relates how some ill- 
advised folk cut the Mistletoe from an Oak at Norwood to sell to the 
London apothecaries : ‘ And one fell lame shortly after; soon after each of 
the others lost an eye; and a rash fellow who ventured to fell the Oak itself, 
broke his leg very shortly afterwards.’ At this time the powder of an Oak 
Mistletoe was deemed an infallible cure for epilepsy; and Culpeper, the 
astrological herbalist, prescribed the leaves and berries of this precious 
plant, given in powder for forty days together, as a sure panacea for apo¬ 
plexy, palsy, and falling sickness. Clusius affirmed that a sprig of the 
sacred plant worn round the neck was a talisman against witchcraft, always 
providing that the bough had not been allowed to touch earth after being 
gathered. In the west of England there is a tradition that the cross was 
made of Mistletoe, which until the time of the Ciucifixion had been a noble 
forest tree, but was thenceforth condemned to exist only as a mere parasite. 
Culpeper remarks that it was sometimes called lignum sanctcB crucis —wood 
of the holy cross—from a belief in its curative virtues in cases of consump¬ 
tion, apoplexy, and palsy—‘ not only to be inwardly taken but to be hung 
at ttieir neck.’ In Sweden Oak Mistletoe is suspended in the house to 
protect it from fire and other injuries; a knife with an Oak Mistletoe 
handle is supposed by the Swedes to ward off the falling sickness ; for other 
complaints a piece of this plant is hung round the patient’s neck or made 
into a finger ring," 
MYRSIPHYLLUM ASPARAGOIDES. 
It appears that this old-fashioned plant is much better known and 
appreciated in the United States of America than it is on this side of the 
Atlantic, though if I am rightly informed it is there frequently incorrectly 
termed a Smilax, In America it is most extensively grown for dinner- 
table decoration, principally in a cut state, and rarely fails to delight 
those visitors who have been more accustomed to the elaborate, and as it 
often happens, much too heavy style of table decoration practised in this 
country. Being always on the look-out for novelty in the way of dinner- 
table decoration, the description I received of the Smilax induced me to 
procure both plants and seeds from America, though, as it happens, I 
need not have gone out of this district for plants. However, the fact of 
both plants and seeds coming from the same quarter, one correctly and 
the other incorrectly named, satisfied us we were growing the right thing, 
this being none other than Myrsiphyllum asparagoides, and which was 
very many years ago introduced from the Cape of Good Hope. 
The old plants made but poor progress either in a cool or intermediate 
temperature, and though the plants can be readily divided, we soon 
found that a good stock is most quickly obtained from seed. Unfor¬ 
tunately none of our seedsmen, to my knowledge, offer seeds of this 
plant, though doubtless they would soon do so if there was a demand for 
it. The seeds considering the size of the plant and flowers are large, 
being somewhat of the shape and colour of Cabbage seed, only they are 
larger. Early in March it was sown in a pan filled with light soil and 
plunged in a brisk bottom heat. Nearly every seed quickly germinated, 
and when the seedlings were about 3 inches high they were pricked off 
in threes in 3-inch pots and loamy soil, and still kept growing in heat. 
When well established they were transferred to a temperate house, and 
before becoming badly root-bound were shifted into 6-inch pots, using 
rather rich loamy soil, this liberal shift being all the potting required for 
the season. The plants were stood on a shelf, the long and naturally 
twining growths being allowed to fall to their full length. Being coarse- 
rooted, plenty of moisture and frequent supplies of strong liquid manure 
was considered necessary from the time the pots were well filled with 
roots, and they have well repaid for this treatment.^ By way of ex¬ 
periment a few of the plants were placed on a shelf in a forcing-house, 
but this only served to hasten flowering, and the appearance of red spider 
further convinced us that a temperature of a greenhouse or intermediate 
