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LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
MISTLETOE. 
I SURMOUNT ALL DIFFICULTIES. 
The Mistletoe is a creeping plant, which 
grows on the tops of the tallest trees. The 
proud oak is its slave, and nourishes it with his 
own substance. The Druids paid a kind of 
adoration to it, as the emblem of a weakness 
that was superior to strength : they regarded 
the tyrant of the oak as equally formidable to 
men and gods. This opinion was founded on 
the following fable of their mythology. 
One day, Balder told his mother Friga that 
he dreamt he was dying. Friga charmed fire, 
metals, diseases, water, and animals, that they 
might not have power to harm her son ; and 
her spells were so powerful that nothing could 
resist them. Balder, therefore, mingled fear¬ 
lessly in the battles of the gods. Loke, his 
enemy, wished to ascertain how it was that he 
always escaped unhurt. Assuming the form of 
