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.

MOSS.

(1) _Adriana._

If ought possess thee from me, it is dross,
Usurping Ivy, Brier, or idle Moss.

_Comedy of Errors_, act ii, sc. 2 (179).

(2) _Tamora._

The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean,
O'ercome with Moss and baleful Mistletoe.

_Titus Andronicus_, act ii, sc. 3 (94).

(3) _Apemantus._

These Moss'd trees
That have outlived the eagle.

_Timon of Athens_, act iv, sc. 3 (223).

(4) _Hotspur._

Steeples and Moss-grown towers.

_1st Henry IV_, act iii, sc. 1 (33).

(5) _Oliver._

Under an Oak whose boughs were Moss'd with age,
And high top bald with dry antiquity.

_As You Like It_, act iv, sc. 3 (105).

(6) _Arviragus._

The ruddock would,
With charitable bill,

* * * * *

bring thee all this;
Yea, and furr'd Moss besides, when flowers are none,
To winter-ground thy corse.

_Cymbeline_, act iv, sc. 2 (224).[164:1]

If it were not for the pretty notice of Moss in the last passage (6), we
should be inclined to say that Shakespeare had as little regard for
"idle Moss" as for the "baleful Mistletoe." In his day Moss included all
the low-growing and apparently flowerless carpet plants which are now
divided into the many families of Mosses, Lichens, Club Mosses,
Hepaticae, Jungermanniae, &c., &c. And these plan