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271
The Folk-lore of Plants
·
T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
44
One
reason
which
no
doubt
has
obtained
for
it
a
marked
degree
of
honour
is
its
parasitical
manner
of
growth,
which
was
in
primitive
times
ascribed
to
the
intervention
of
the
gods.
According
to
one
of
its
traditionary
origins,
its
seed
was
said
to
be
deposited
on
certain
trees
by
birds,
the
messengers
of
the
gods,
if
not
the
gods
themselves
in
disguise,
by
which
this
plant
established
itself
in
the
branch
of
a
tree.
The
mode
of
procedure,
say
the
old
botanists,
was
through
the
"mistletoe
thrush."
This
bird,
it
was
asserted,
by
feeding
on
the
berries,
surrounded
its
beak
with
the
viscid
mucus
they
contain,
to
rid
itself
of
which
it
rubbed
its
beak,
in
the
course
of
flying,
against
the
branches
of
trees,
and
thereby
inserted
the
seed
which
gave
birth
to
the
new
plant.
When
the
mistletoe
was
found
growing
on
the
oak,
its
presence
was
attributed
specially
to
the
gods,
and
as
such
was
treated
with
the
deepest
reverence.
It
was
not,
too,
by
accident
that
the
oak
was
selected,
as
this
tree
was
honoured
by
Aryan
tradition
with
being
of
lightning
origin.
Hence
when
the
mistletoe
was
found
on
its
branches,
the
occurrence
was
considered
as
deeply
significant,
and
all
the
more
so
as
its
existence
in
such
a
locality
was
held
to
be
very
rare[8].
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