CHAP. CV. COIIYLA'CE®. QUE'RCUS. 1831
oak trees, are chiefly mosses; and, in very moist climates, Polypodium vulgare,and some other ferns. It is proper to state, however, that these plants can-not be considered as peculiar to the oak ; but that they are merely found onthat tree more commonly than on any other, on account of the denseness of itsshade during summer. Some oak trees, among the hillsof Westmoreland and Cumberland (for example, in Leven’sGrove, and in the grounds of the poet Wordsworth atRydal), have the trunks and main branches quite green,with the foliage of P. vulgiire; and others covered with amossy envelope of different species of 7/ypnurri. Themosses most commonly found on trees are, 7/ypnum den-ticulatum Eng. Bot., t. 1260., and our fig. 1656, H. tenel-lum, H. serpens, H. lutescens Eng. Bot., t. 1301., H.
Pcihli, H. curvatum, H. confertum, and 11. cupressiforineEng. Bot., t. I860., and our fig. 1658., Leskea incurvata,
L. frichomanoides, and L. complaniita Eng. Bot., t. 1492., and our fig. 1657.,Daltonia heteromalla, Neckera crispa, N. pinnata, and various others; butnone of these can be considered as exclusively confinedto the oak.
The mistletoe is the only truly parasitic plant whichgrows on the oak; but it is so rarely found on it in Eng-land, that many persons have doubted the fact of thattree ever having been its habitat.
The mistletoe of the oak is, how-ever, so intimately connectedwith all the traditions of thedruids, that we cannot doubtthe fact of its having been ac-tually found by them ; especiallyas we are told that its being discovered was so rare anoccurrence, as to be attended by rejoicings. We alsofind that the apple tree was considered a sacred tree, andthat apple orchards were always appended to the oakgroves of the druids. (See Davis’s Celtic Researches, &c.) Now, as we knowthat the mistletoe grows very freely on the apple tree, the seeds of the mistletoemight very naturally be conveyed from the apple orchard to the adjoiningoaks, and some might vegetate on them. After numerous enquiries on thissubject, we succeeded in March, 1837, in learning from Mr. D. Beaton, gardenerat Haffield, near Ledbury, that Mr. Pitt, a small farmer in that neighbourhood,recollected seeing it on an oak tree near Ledbury, adjoining to which therewas a willow tree loaded with mistletoe, from which the oak was supposed tohave been supplied. This oak was cut down in 1831. Through the kindnessof Mr. Moss, gardener to Earl Somers, at Eastnor Castle, Mr. Beaton receivedan account of an oak tree growing near the castle, on which there are severalplants of mistletoe, one of which is of great age, and its branches occupy aspace nearly 5 ft. in diameter. The mistletoe on the oak grows with greatervigour, and has broader leaves, than that which has grown on the apple; andits stem does not form that swelling at its junction with the oak, that it doeson most other trees. Of these facts we had ocular demonstration from alarge and handsome specimen of mistletoe growing from an oak branch, sentto us in March, 1837, by Mr. Beaton; and which, in order that the fact ofthe mistletoe growing on the oak might no longer be doubted by botanists orgardeners, we exhibited on April 4th, 1837, at the meetings of the Horticul-tural Society, and of the Linnaean Society, held on that day. (See Gard. Mag.,vol. xiii. p. 206.) Subsequently, Mr. Brackenridge, a Scotch gardener, whois just returned from Berlin, has informed us that he saw the mistletoe onseveral oak trees, near Lobsens, in the Duchy of Posen, about 11 miles onthe south side of the town of Posen, near to an old cloister, the property of
M. Ebers, to whom Mr. Brackenridge was, for a short time, gardener. Lo-ranthus europaeus, a parasite closely resembling the Fiscum album, is fre-