246 
TfiE PRINCIPLES OF BOTANt. 
6. That in each school the Board for Examinations for 
the Diploma should be composed of Professors belonging to 
the three schools and of veterinary practitioners. 
All these resolutions were unanimously adopted. 
THE PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY. 
By Professor James Buckman, F.G.S., F.L.S., &c. &c. 
{Continued from p. 174.) 
The qualities, uses, and folklore of mistletoe will form the 
subject of the present chapter. 
In very early days, in the history of England, there is no 
doubt but that mistletoe was the “ All Heal " of the inhabitants 
of these islands, and, as employed by the Druids, it must have 
been an institution which it would be difficult to parallel. 
The mistletoe occurs, according to Bentham, “ on a great va¬ 
riety of trees, but especially on the apple , extending over the 
whole of temperate Europe, from Sweden to the Mediterranean, 
and far into Asia, but not everywhere abundant. Common in 
Southern, and especially western England ; rare in the north, and 
not known in Scotland or Ireland/'* 
Common, however, as the parasitic shrub is with us now, we 
hesitate to consider it as an aboriginal native, and quite agree 
with our friend Edwin Lees, Esq., that “ it would be curious to 
know how the plant got into Britain. 5 ' 
He goes on to say, “ It must be an introduction , for strange 
to say, I never saw it 071 the native crab tree, though so common in 
planted orchards. Druids, perhaps, brought it over from the 
Continent, for it is even now very rare in the North of England, 
and it is very doubtful if it exists in Scotland." 
Most of the trees on which it occurs have been introduced, 
and there seems reason to think that the early Celtic priesthood in¬ 
troduced many of the trees now looked on as natives, and with them 
the mistletoe also. Still there is reason to conclude that mistle¬ 
toe on the oak was always a rarity, and though Dr. Daubeny 
gives the opinion that mistletoe-growing oaks were exterminated 
after the Druids were destroyed, we cannot help thinking that 
there has been more oak grown in England in modern than in 
Druidical times, and yet mistletoe oaks can be counted on the 
fingers, still a cunning priesthood would always have enough 
* ‘ Handbook of the British Flora,’ p. 266. 
