"Upon the oak, the plumb-tree and the holme, The stock-dove and the blackbird should not come, Whose mooting on the trees does make to grow Rots-curing hyphear, and the Mistletoe."
So that we need not blame Gerard when he boldly said that "this excrescence hath not any roote, neither doth encrease himselfe of his seed, as some have supposed, but it rather commethe of a certaine moisture gathered together upon the boughes and joints of the trees, through the barke whereof this vaporous moisture proceeding bringeth forth the Misseltoe." We now know that it is produced exclusively from the seeds probably lodged by the birds, and that it is easily grown and cultivated. It will grow and has been found on almost any deciduous tree, preferring those with soft bark, and growing very seldom on the Oak.[163:2] Those who wish for full information upon the proportionate distribution of the Mistletoe on different British trees will find a good summary in "Notes and Queries," vol. iii. p. 226.
[163:1] "_Mistel_ est a _mist_ stercus, quod ex stercore avium pronascitur, nec aliter pronasci potest."--WACHTER, _Glossary_ (quoted in "Notes and Queries," 3rd series, vii. 157. In the same volume are several papers on the origin of the word). Dr. Prior derives it from _mistl_ (different), and _tan_ (twig), being so unlike the tree it grows upon.
[163:2] Mistletoe growing on an oak had a special legendary value. Its rarity probably gave it value in the eyes of the Druids, and much later it had its mystic lore. "By sitting upon a hill late in a evening, near a Wood, in a few nights a fire drake will appeare, mark where it lighteth, and then you shall find an oake with Mistletoe thereon, at the Root whereof there is a Misle-childe, whereof many strange things are conceived. _Beati qui non crediderunt._"--PLAT., _Garden of Eden_, 1659, No. 68.
If ought possess thee from me, it is dross, Usurping Ivy, Brier, or idle Moss.
The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean, O'ercome with Moss and baleful Mistletoe.
These Moss'd trees That have outlived the eagle.
Under an Oak whose boughs were Moss'd with age, And high top bald with dry antiquity.
bring thee all this; Yea, and furr'd Moss besides, when flowers are none, To winter-ground thy corse.