OCR Text |
Show "CONCERNING THE MISTUETO. An Exntle Slirnb Which Baa but Beeeat ly Been Introduced la America, The mistletoe huag oa the castle wall, And the holly branch shoes In th old oat hall, And the haroot retainers wer blithe and gaji Keeping their Christmas holiday. At this season of the year the mistletoe ie welcome addition to the stock of our florist, being iutiinately associated, as it is, viith Christinas sports. It is new, however, to this country, and it ia not much more than a decade since the first venture was ever brought here. The hmb is mostly tropical and parasitical, and authorities on the subject tell us that there are over four hundred known species of the order. There is only one species known to Great Britain, the common com-mon mistletoe the viscum album, as it it twtanicnlly known and it is with that particular species that we have to deal. U is popularly supposed that the mistletoe mis-tletoe grows exclusively on the oak tree, but this is a mistake, us it is found on the oak in very rare instances, while it fcTows with great profusion on the apple, the pear, the haw-thorn, and also on sycamores, syca-mores, limes, poplars, locust trees and firs. In gome portions of the soutli of England it is very abundant, and its evenrreen loaves prjve u peculiar appear-nce appear-nce to the orchards in winter, when the bushes of mistletoe are very conspicuous among the naked branches of the trees. Thero i:i a superstition connected with the mistletoe that it is unlucky to fell an oak on which It grows, and the author of "Magna Britaunia" describes a great wood belonging to the archbishops of the Hundred of Croylar.d, said to havs consisted wholly of oaks, und among them was one that bore miat'.otoe, which some persona were no hardy us to cut down for tho gain of selling it to ths apothecaries of London, leaving a branch of it to sprout out, but they proved unfortunate un-fortunate after it, for one of them foil lame and others lost an eye. At length, in tho year 1C78, a certain man, notwithstanding notwith-standing he was warned against it, upon account of what the others hd suffered, suf-fered, adventured to cnt the ire'e down, and he soon after broke hia leg. To foil oaks had long been considered fatal, and such as believe it produce the instance of the Earl of Winchelaeit, who, having felled a curious ,grove of oaks, soon tiftei found his countess dead in her bed suddenly, sud-denly, and his eldest son, Lord Maidstone, Maid-stone, was presently killed by a cannon ball. New York Press. |