The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 11 of 12)

780

C. Fraas, Synopsis Plantarum Florae Classicae (Munich, 1845), p. 152.

781

H. O. Lenz, Botanik der alten Griechen und Römer (Gotha, 1859), p. 597, quoting Pollini.

782

J. Lindley and T. Moore, The Treasury of Botany, New Edition (London, 1874), ii. 1220. A good authority, however, observes that mistletoe is “frequently to be observed on the branches of old apple-trees, hawthorns, lime-trees, oaks, etc., where it grows parasitically.” See J. Sowerby, English Botany, xxi. (London, 1805) p. 1470.

783

Encyclopaedia Britannica, Ninth Edition, x. 689, s. v. “Gloucester.”

784

H. Gaidoz, “Bulletin critique de la Mythologie Gauloise,” Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, ii. (1880) pp. 75 sq.

785

Angelo de Gubernatis, La Mythologie des Plantes (Paris, 1878-1882), ii. 216 sq. As to the many curious superstitions that have clustered round mandragora, see P. J. Veth, “De Mandragora,” Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, vii. (1894) pp. 199-205; C. B. Randolph, “The Mandragora of the Ancients in Folk-lore and Medicine,” Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, vol. xl. No. 12 (January, 1905), pp. 487-537.

786

W. Schlich, Manual of Forestry, vol. iv. Forest Protection, Second Edition (London, 1907), pp. 415-417.

787

E. B. Stebbing, “The Loranthus Parasite of the Moru and Ban Oaks,” Journal and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, New Series, v. (Calcutta, 1910) pp. 189-195. The Loranthus vestitus “is a small branching woody plant with dirty yellowish green leaves which are dark shining green above. It grows in great clumps and masses on the trees, resembling a giant mistletoe. The fruit is yellowish and fleshy, and is almost sessile on the stem, which it thickly studs” (ib., p. 192). The writer shews that the parasite is very destructive to oaks in India.

788

H. O. Lenz, Botanik der alten Griechen und Römer (Gotha, 1859), p. 598, notes 151 and 152.

789

C. Fraas, Synopsis Plantarum Florae Classicae (Munich, 1845), p. 152.

790

H. O. Lenz, Botanik der alten Griechen und Römer (Gotha, 1859), pp. 599 sq.

791

Theophrastus, Historia Plantarum, iii. 7. 5, iii. 16. 1, De Causis Plantarum, ii. 17; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xvi. 245-247. Compare Dioscorides, De materia medica, ii. 93 (103), vol. i. pp. 442 sq., ed. C. Sprengel (Leipsic, 1829-1830), who uses the form ixos instead of ixia. Both Dioscorides (l. c.) and Plutarch (Coriolanus, 3) affirm that mistletoe (ixos) grows on the oak (δρῦς); and Hesychius quotes from Sophocles's play Meleager the expression “mistletoe-bearing oaks” (ἰξοφόρους δρύας, Hesychius, s. v.).

792

Theophrastus, Opera quae supersunt omnia, ed. Fr. Wimmer (Paris, 1866), pp. 537, 545, 546, s. vv. ἰξία, στελίς, ὑφέαρ.

793

F. Fraas, Synopsis Plantarum Florae Classicae (Munich, 1845), p. 152.

794

H. O. Lenz, Botanik der alten Griechen und Römer (Gotha, 1859), p. 597, notes 147 and 148.

795

Theophrastus, De Causis Plantarum, ii. 17. 2, ἐπεὶ τό γε τὴν μὲν ἀείφυλλον εἶναι τῶν ἰξιῶν (τὴν δὲ φυλλοβόλον) οὐθὲν ἄτοπον, κἂν ἡ μὲν (ἐν) ἀιφύλλοις ἡ δὲ ἐν φυλλοβόλοις ἐμβιῴη.

796

His letter is undated, but the postmark is April 28th, 1889. Sir Francis Darwin has since told me that his authority is Kerner von Marilaun, Pflanzenleben (1888), vol. i. pp. 195, 196. See Anton Kerner von Marilaun, The Natural History of Plants, translated and edited by F. W. Oliver (London, 1894-1895), i. 204 sqq. According to this writer “the mistletoe's favourite tree is certainly the Black Poplar (Populus nigra). It flourishes with astonishing luxuriance on the branches of that tree… Mistletoe has also been found by way of exception upon the oak and the maple, and upon old vines” (op. cit. i. 205).

797

Prof. P. J. Veth, “De leer der signatuur, III. De mistel en de riembloem,” Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, vii. (1894) p. 105. The Dutch language has separate names for the two species: mistletoe is mistel, and Loranthus is riembloem.

798

His letter is dated 18th February, 1908.

799

But Sir Francis Darwin writes to me: – “I do not quite see why Loranthus should not put out leaves in winter as easily as Viscum, in both cases it would be due to unfolding leaf buds; the fact that Viscum has adult leaves at the time, while Loranthus has not, does not really affect the matter.” However, Mr. Paton tells us, as we have just seen, that in winter the Loranthus growing on the oaks of Mount Athos has no leaves, though its yellow berries are very conspicuous.