PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
173 
So that we need not blame Gerard when he boldly said that 
“this excrescence hath not any roote, neither doth encrease 
himselfe of his seed, as some have supposed, but it rather 
commethe of a certaine moisture gathered together upon the 
boughes and joints of the trees, through the barke whereof this 
vaporous moisture proceeding bringeth forth the Misseltoe.” 
We now know that it is produced exclusively from the seeds 
probably lodged by the birds, and that it is easily grown and 
cultivated. It will grow and has been found on almost any 
deciduous tree, preferring those with soft bark, and growing 
very seldom on the Oak. 1 Those who wish for full information 
upon the proportionate distribution of the Mistletoe on different 
British trees will find a good summary in “ Notes and Queries,” 
vol. iii. p. 226. 
(1) 
(2) 
( 3 ) 
( 4 ) 
(5) 
/iboss. 
If aught possess thee from me, it is dross, 
Usurping Ivy, Brier, or idle Moss. 
Comedy of Errors, ii. 2, 179. 
The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean, 
O’ercome with Moss and baleful Mistletoe. 
Titus Andronicus , ii. 3, 94. 
These Moss’d trees 
That have outlived the eagle. — Timon of Athens, iv. 3, 223. 
Steeples and Moss-grown towers.—1 st Henry IV, iii. 1, 33. 
Under an Oak whose boughs were Moss’d with age. 
And high top bald with dry antiquity. 
As You Like It, iv. 3, 105. 
1 Mistletoe growing on an oak had a special legendary value. Its rarity 
probably gave it value in the eyes of the Druids, and much later it had its 
mystic lore. “By sitting upon a hill late in a evening, near a Wood, in a 
few nights a fire drake will appeare, mark where it lighteth, and then you 
shall find an oake with Mistletoe thereon, at the Root whereof there is a 
Misle-childe, whereof many strange things are conceived. Beati qui non 
credideruntf — PLAT,, Garden of Eden, 1659, No. 68. 
