In answer to your correspondent ACHE, I may add, that the opinion of recent botanists is contrary to Sir Thomas Browne's notion with reference to the propagation of the seed; for it is known that the seeds, in germinating, send their radicles into the plant to which they are attached; and grow afterwards as true parasites, selecting certain chemical ingredients in preference to others. The mistletoe has never been known to grow in Ireland; but its frequency in various parts of the world--in France, Italy, Greece, and parts of Asia--has been remarked by travellers. Its use seems to be to provide food for birds during those rare seasons of scarcity, when a very sparing supply of other fruits and seeds can be procured.
_The Sizain_ (Vol. vi., p. 603.; Vol. vii., p. 174.).--I know not whether any one of the sizains you have published may be the original, from which all the others must be considered as imitations or parodies; but they bring to my mind an English example, which I met with many years ago in some book of miscellanies. I do not recollect whether the book in question attributed it to any particular author; who, I presume, must have been some staunch adherent for Protestant ascendancy in the early part of the last century:
"Our three great enemies remember, The Pope, the Devil, and the Pretender. All wicked, damnable, and evil, The Pope, the Pretender, and the Devil. I wish them all hung on one rope, The Devil, the Pretender, and the Pope."
Since writing the foregoing, the following has been dictated to me from recollection; which may be referred to about the period of George III.'s last illness:
"You should send, if aught should ail ye, For Willis, Heberden, or Baillie. All exceeding skilful men, Baillie, Willis, Heberden. Uncertain which most sure to kill is, Baillie, Heberden, or Willis."
_Venda_ (Vol. vii., p. 179.).--This word, in Portuguese, signifies a place where wine and meat are sold by retail in a tavern. It also appears to answer to the Spanish _Venta_, a road-side inn; something between the French and English inn, and the Eastern caravansaries. In the places which C. E. F. mentions, _Venda_ in Portugal is like Osteria in Italy, of which plenty will be seen on the plains of the Campagna at Rome.