P. S.—I inclose my card, in order that Percuriosus (who evidently knows something of the family) may communicate personally or by letter. I think that I might possibly be able to give him some information in return for his kindness.
The Furze or Gorse in Scandinavia (Vol. vi., pp. 127. 377.).—Henfrey, in his Vegetation of Europe, states that the furze (Ulex Europæus) occurs, but not abundantly, in the south-western parts of the Scandinavian peninsula. It is well known that in Central Germany it is a greenhouse plant.
Seleucus.
Mistletoe (Vol. ii., p. 418.; Vol. iii., pp. 192. 226. 396. 462.).—There is in the parish of Staveley, Derbyshire, a solitary mansion called the Hagg, erected by Sir Peter Frescheville, in what was at that time a park of considerable extent, for a hunting lodge, when age and infirmity prevented him from otherwise enjoying the pleasures of the chase. In one of Colepeper's MSS. at the British Museum, there is the following curious notice of this house:
"This is the Parke House which Sir Peter Frescheville, in his will, 16th March, 1632, calls my new Lodge in Staveley Parke. Heare my Lord Frescheville did live, and heare growes the famous mistleto tree, the only oake in England that bears mistleto, which florished at my deare Wife's birth, who was born heare."
I presume it is the same which is referred to in the following letter addressed by the Countess of Danby to Mrs. Colepeper; it is without date, but was written between 1663 and 1682:
"Dear Cosen.—Pray if you have any of the miselto of yor father's oke, oblidge me so far as to send sum of it to
Yor most affectionat servant, Bridget Danby."
The oak tree still exists, and in 1803 it contained mistletoe, but there is none to be seen now. About a quarter of a mile from this locality I observed the mistletoe in a large crab-tree, and I recently found it in a venerable yew of many centuries' growth near Sheffield.
W. S. (Sheffield.)
Inscription on a Dagger (Vol. vii., p. 40.).—These lines form a Dutch proverb, and, if thus written, rhyme: