Note 394 — Chapter I

The worship and religious ceremonies of the druids have formed the subject of many and voluminous dissertations; and the mistletoe, from its connection with their sacred rites, is a plant that has always been interesting to antiquaries. In a letter recently received by the editor from the learned and scientific Professor of Botany, Dr. Daubeny, of Magdalen College, Oxford, that gentleman observes, that though the mistletoe is occasionally found on the oak in Britain, yet this occurs so rarely that it is difficult to suppose the druids could have got a supply for their purposes from such a source.

"There is a plant nearly allied to the mistletoe, the Loranthus Europæus, which grows freely on the oak, when it occurs; but unfortunately the most western locality known is the garden of Schoenbrunn near Vienna, but out of the limits, I believe, within which the druidical worship existed: it is very uncommon in Hungary.

"This circumstance has given rise to an hypothesis, which I may repeat without attaching to it any very great importance, namely, that the Loranthus is the mistletoe of the druids, and that when the druidical worship was exterminated, this plant, as being introduced into their rites, was extirpated from all those parts of Europe, where the druids were known."

The oak among the ancient Britons was peculiarly sacred as the place of worship, and consequently branches of this tree were used to adorn the altar, and garlands of its leaves to decorate the priest or druid; and the mistletoe, being so seldom found on the oak, was considered so great and desirable an appendage, that no solemn festival was held without it. It has been observed by naturalists that the blossom of the mistletoe falls within a few days of the summer solstice, and the berry within a few days of the winter solstice. These incidents therefore marked the return of two of the usual seasons for holding the bardic conventions and festivals. When the sacrifice was over, the berries of this plant were taken by the ovate, the physician of the tribe, and converted to medical purposes. That these berries possessed medicinal virtues can hardly be doubted. The following passage respecting this sacred plant occurs in Bacon:—"Mistletoe groweth chiefly upon crab trees, apple trees, sometimes upon hazels, and rarely upon oaks; the mistletoe whereof is counted very medicinal. It is ever green, winter and summer, and beareth a white glistening berry: and it is a plant utterly differing from the plant on which it groweth."

Sir John Colbach published a Dissertation on the efficacy of the mistletoe in 1720; but in medicine, as in fashion, what is deemed of high value in one age is discontinued in the next, and thought nothing of. Such is the fate of the mistletoe in the present day as to any medicinal use that is made of it.