[30] Even modern science has not yet succeeded in solving some of the mysteries connected with this remarkable plant. For instance, although the apple and the pear are closely related, mistletoe very rarely grows on the pear tree, and there is no case on record of mistletoe planted on a pear tree by human hands surviving the stage of germination. There are, it is true, two famous mistletoe pears in this country--one in the garden of Belvoir Castle and the other in the garden of Fern Lodge, Malvern, but in both cases the seed was sown naturally. It grows very rarely on the oak, and this possibly accounts for the special reverence accorded by the Druids to the mistletoe oak. [31] _Leech Book_, I. 81. [32] _Lacnunga_, 9. [33] This closely resembles a Cornish charm for a tetter. "Tetter, tetter, thou hast nine brothers, God bless the flesh and preserve the bone; Perish thou, tetter, and be thou gone. Tetter, tetter, thou hast eight brothers." Thus the verses are continued until tetter having "no brother" is ordered to be gone.--R. Hunt, _Popular Romances of the West of England_, p. 414. [34] For further instances of the mystic use of three and nine see also _Leech Book_, I. 45, 47, 67. [35] St. Eloy, in a sermon preached in A.D. 640, also forbade the enchanting of herbs:-- "Before all things I declare and testify to you that you shall observe none of the impious customs of the pagans, neither sorcerers, nor diviners, nor soothsayers, nor enchanters, nor must you presume for any cause to enquire of them.... Let none regulate the beginning of any piece of work by the day or by the moon. Let none trust in nor presume to invoke the names of dæmons, neither Neptune, nor Orcus, nor Diana, nor Minerva, nor Geniscus nor any other such follies.... Let no Christian place lights at the temples or the stones, or at fountains, or at trees, or at places where three ways meet.... Let none presume to hang amulets on the neck of man or beast.... Let no one presume to make lustrations, nor to enchant herbs, nor to make flocks pass through a hollow tree, or an aperture in the earth; for by so doing he seems to consecrate them to the devil. Let none on the kalends of January join in the wicked and ridiculous things, the dressing like old women or like stags, nor make feasts lasting all night, nor keep up the custom of gifts and intemperate drinking. Let no one on the festival of St. John or on any of the festivals join in the solstitia or dances or leaping or caraulas or diabolical songs."--From a sermon preached by St. Eloy in A.D. 640. [36] A Christian prayer for a blessing on herbs runs thus:--