THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
23 
who was standing by, and I said, “ If this young plant 
escapes destruction, some time or other it will support 
the millstone, and raise it from the ground.” He seemed 
to doubt this. 
In order, however, that the plant might have a fair 
chance of success, I directed that it should be protected 
from accident and harm by means of a wooden paling. 
Year after year it increased in size and beauty, and 
when its expansion had entirely filled the hole in the 
centre of the millstone it began gradually to raise up 
the millstone itself from the seat of its long repose. 
This huge mass of stone is now eight inches above the 
ground, and is entirely supported by the stem of the 
nut tree, which has risen to the height of twenty-five 
feet, and bears excellent fruit.— Charles Waterton, Esq., 
in London Magazine. 
MISTLETOE. 
Tiie American Mistletoe, Phoradendron Flavescens, 
■common in many parts of our country, especially in 
New Jersey, conveys to us a very poor idea of the 
beauty of the imported variety Viscum Album, and can¬ 
not be satisfactorily substituted for it, so just before 
Christmas-time the English steamers bring over a sup¬ 
ply which, this season, is to be much larger than usual 
to meet the increasing demand for its use in our holiday 
decorations. 
The Misletoe is a parasite which fastens its suckers in 
the bark of the tree on which it lives, drawing its life 
from the juices until the tree droops and dies. It so 
closely and firmly unites itself to the bark that it seems 
to be a part of the tree; its branches grow quite large, 
and are covered with dull-green leaves and white 
wax-like berries. It is said to grow best on old apple 
trees, and is made to take root by pressing a berry in a 
crack of the bark, as the roots run down between the 
bark and the young wood, where they are fed by 
the sap. 
The hanging of the Mistletoe has been the cause of a 
great deal of merry-making, as any one found beneath 
its branches must submit to being kissed by whoever 
chooses to take the liberty, and as the branches are usu¬ 
ally suspended from the centre of the ceiling there is 
consequently considerable dodging by those who do not 
care to put themselves in the way of such a greeting. 
A writer in the St. Nicholas says “that the origin of 
this use of the Mistletoe is not known; but that we do 
know that more than eighteen hundred years ago, when 
the stars sang together over the manger in Bethlehem, 
and wise men brought gifts of gold, frankincense and 
myrrh to a young Child in the peasant mother’s arms, 
England was a chill, mist-covered island, inhabited 
only by savages, who wore garments of skins and lived 
in huts of mud and stone. Among these savage Britons 
there were pagan priests called Druids, These priests 
were a mysterious folk, who lived in dense woods far 
away from other men, and who, in the gloomy solitudes 
of the forest, performed strange secret ceremonies. The 
“sacred groves,” as they were called, were of oak, for 
the oak was a divine tree according to their religion. 
Within these sacred groves the priests, it is recorded 
in history, offered their sacrifices, and in some manner 
not now known they employed the Mistletoe. But all 
Mistletoe was not sacred to the Druids. They would 
have none but that which clung to the trunk and was 
nourished by the sap of the divine oak. To them the 
Apple-tree Mistletoe, which England uses so freely now 
in her holiday festivities, would be a worthless and 
•common thing. 
“When, in later centuries, England was taught the 
Christian religion by priests who went thither from 
Rome, the people, though professing a belief in Christ, 
retained many of their heathen rites and customs 
changed from their original meaning and purpose. At 
any rate, from the Druids has come the modern usage 
of the Mistletoe-bough, strangely preserved in festivi¬ 
ties which commemorate the birth of Him whose pure 
worship destroys all heathen superstitions. 
“There is the story of an Englishman who was so at¬ 
tached to the Christmas customs of his country that 
when he removed his home to California he carried with 
him some of the Mistletoe, and set it upon Apple-trees. 
But the transplanted parasite did not seem to care for the 
Apple-trees of America when it could have richer food, 
so it left these and fastened itself to the wild Plum-tree 
which grew profusely in that region. So strong did the 
Mistletoe become in that fruitful climate that it finally 
sucked out the life-sap of all the wild Plum-trees in 
that vicinity, and the failure of the Plum harvest, upon 
which a tribe of debased Indians called Diggers had 
always depended for their living, caused famine, dis¬ 
tress and death among them.” 
Most of the Mistletoe used in London and New York is 
said to be grown in the Apple orchards of Normandy, and 
this writer, in describing the curious harvest, says: “Be¬ 
fore Christmas, and when the Apples have been gath¬ 
ered and carried to the cider-presses or stowed away in 
cellars, all the peasant children from the neighborhood 
and poor people from the towns, come out to the Mistle¬ 
toe gathering. They are hired by the farmers for a few 
cents a day, and they gladly come with huge baskets 
and little donkev-carts, not much larger than wheel¬ 
barrows. These are piled so high with the harvested 
parasite that they look like miniature liay-carts going 
home to the farmer’s barn. 
“ The Mistletoe is in so much demand in English 
markets that the French farmers find it profitable 
to encourage its growth, even though the parasite 
kills the Apple-tree at last. So enough is left at 
every harvest to increase and multiply itself for the 
next year. It clings, like drowning men to a wreck, 
so that some times, in tearing it away, the branch 
to which it has fastened itself is riven from the tree, 
and some of the masses of foliage are so large as to be 
more than one person can manage to hang from the 
ceiling of a room. After the Mistletoe is gathered it is 
tightly packed into great wooden crates, like hen¬ 
coops, and sent by steamer to England. From England 
a portion of it goes to America, where thousands of 
English families, in the home of their adoption, can 
eat and drink their hearty Christmas cheer beneath 
the familiar Druidical shadows.” 
