THE PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY. 
249 
neighbourhood of my residence, what he knew on the subject ? 
and he said that the mistletoe of the oak, when it could be met 
with, was a capital thing for a side coiv; but especially after 
calving. Shades of the Druids ! that “ all-heal/’ once gathered 
by a white robed Arch-Druid, with a golden hook, and received 
upon a stainless cloth, as the mystic gift of heaven, shorn of all 
its glories, and divested of all its sanitary powers as respects 
the human race, now only figures on the traditions of rural prac¬ 
titioners, as an aperient for an ailing cow. 
Though mistletoe was the all-heal of the Druids, and was, per¬ 
haps, used medicinally in the middle ages, its use as a medicine 
is now utterly discarded, and it does not find a place in any 
modern book of medicinal plants. 
At one time it was reputed to possess many healing powers, 
and to contain strong if not poisonous principles, but its use 
as advised by Thomas Tusser, gentleman, as food for sheep and 
cattle is decisively against its possessing any but feeding pro¬ 
perties. 
“ In pruning and trimming all manner of trees, 
Reserve to each cattle their properly fees; 
If snow do continue, sheep hardly that fare 
Crave mistle and ivy, for them for to spare.”* 
Again, in January’s abstract we find this author directing— 
“ Now season is good 
To lop or fell wood, 
Prune trees some allows 
For cattle to browse, 
Give sheep to their fees 
The mistle off trees.” 
During the present hard winter we have seen it stated that 
mistletoe has frequently been given to cattle and sheep. We 
have, however, never seen it so employed, though we have every 
reason to believe it to be perfectly innocuous. 
That the mistletoe has been highly extolled for its medicinal 
virtue from remote times is, doubtless, due to the great abun¬ 
dance of fruits on the fertile plants. The older writers seem to 
have held it in esteem as ministering to fertility; deriving the 
notion, in all probability, from the multitude of berries which 
grow on the plant—a notion which may have something to do 
with some of our Christmas observances. The mistletoe of the 
oak had such repute for f helping ’ in the diseases incidental to 
infirmity and old age that it was called Lignum sanctm crucis 
(wood of the Holy Cross); and, as the parasite is the same on 
one tree as on another, we may infer that the robust nature of 
the oak was supposed to impart to it strengthening properties. 
Bay is, perhaps the latest writer who has greatly extolled mistletoe, 
* ‘January’s Husbandry.’ 
