TETRANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. Hippophae. 241 
HIPP0 7 PHAE. # Barren and fertile flowers on different 
plants: Bloss. none. 
B. Calyx one leaf, two-lobed. 
F. Calyx one leaf, two-cleft, tubular: Berry superior, 
one-celled : Seed hard, shining, (invested with a 
double coat. E.) 
H. rhamnoi'des. Leaves spear-shaped. 
FI Ross. i. 68—( E. Bot. 425. E.)— Cam. Epit. 81— J. B. i. b. 33— Dod. 
Journal of Hermstadt. It was formerly in great repute as a remedy for epileptic and other 
complaints; but it is now disregarded ; and indeed its sensible qualities promise but little. 
Paley adduces this parasite, (which like many others may be said to have no earthly inherit¬ 
ance,) as a singular instance of what he terms compensation , in his argument proving the 
design and contrivance of nature. <( No art hath yet made these plants take root in the 
earth. Here, therefore, might seem to be a mortal defect io their constitution. Let us 
examine how this defect is made up to them. The seeds are endued with an adhesive 
quality, so tenacious, that if they be rubbed upon the smooth baik of almost any tree, 
they will stick to it. And then what follows ? Roots springing from these seeds, in¬ 
sinuate their fibres into the woody substance of the tree ; and the event is that a missletoe- 
plant is produced next winter. Of no other plant do the roots refuse to shoot in the 
ground ; of no other plant do the seeds possess this adhesive generative quality, when ap¬ 
plied to the bark of trees.” Nat. Theol. Of the Druidical and superstitious uses of this 
plant, some curious particulars may be found in Pliny’s Nat. Hist.; whence we learn that 
it was ordained to be cut with a golden knife, and only by the priest, clothed in white, and 
the plant received on a white napkin, when the moon was six days old; the ceremonial 
being accompanied by the sacrifice of tw r o bulls,— 
“ Ad Viscum Druida; cantare solebant.’’ Ovid. 
Having no immediate connection with the earth, the thus consecrated Missletoe was 
deemed of celestial origin, and when discovered on the Oak; (after whose British name 
the priests were called,) tw r o principal objects of superstition united their influence in 
convincing the ignorant heathens that the sacred plant would prove an effectual antidote 
to poisons, and a preventive of all the various ills of Pandora’s box. 
“ The naturalists are puzzled to explain 
How trees did first this stranger entertain ; 
Whether the busy birds engraft it there, 
Or, else, some Deity’s mysterious care. 
As Druids thought— 
or rather taught. 
In the Christmas ceremony of the bush may be yet recognised a slight vestige of the 
importance once attached to this peculiar shrub. And thus runs Sir W. Scott’s animated 
description of the good old time ere our bold peasantry were reduced to the condition of 
paupers, and their joys curtailed by a spurious sanctity_ 
“ England was merry England when 
Old Christmas brought his sports again. 
’Twas Christmas broach’d the mightiest ale ; 
’Tvvas Christmas told the merriest tale. 
A Christmas gambol oft would cheer 
A poor man’s heart through half the year. 
The hall was dress’d with holly-green ; 
Forth to the wood did merry men go, 
To gather in the Missletoe.” 
M. De Candolle, to prove that the Missletoe draws its nourishment from the plant on which 
* (From imvosy a horse, and to give light; formerly being reputed to cure blind¬ 
ness in horses.) 
VOL. II, a 
