238 
LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
1 
MISLETOE. 
I SGRMOUXT AIL DIFFICULTIES. 
The Misletoe is a creeping plant, which grows on 
the tops of the tallest trees. The proud oak is its 
slave, and nourishes it with its own substance. 
The Druids paid a kind of adoration to it as the 
emblem of a weakness that w'as 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 my¬ 
thology. 
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 fearlessly in the battles of the 
