āc-mistel

V. album is native to Britain and lives on many species of trees (cf. Stace 1997,455). The author of the Leechbook and his contemporaries used ācmistel to denote a subspecies[1] of Viscum album L. which lives off oaks. Distribution of this plant is rather scarce (cf. Hegi 1906,III,146) and therefore it is more likely that this occurrence refers to V. album, which was widely available in Anglo Saxon England. According to Jente (1921,130) the mistel, which was used for sacrificial ceremonies by celtic druids and ranked rather high in later popular superstition, was not given much credit in Anglos-Saxon times. The LB conveys no superstitious beliefs which would call for the use of this plant in any magico-medical way.

Acting on the assumption that the passage of the LB is based upon a L source we can expect Loranthus europaeus Jaqu. (the VISCUM QUERCINUM of the ancients, cf. Hegi 1906,III,150) as original drug. It is possible that the compiler of the LB did not know this plant, the habitat of which is South-East and Central Europe, and Asia Minor. So Hoops' conclusion "The ancient holy mistel (Viscum album L.) [...] lives on oaks." (1911,256), which is based on the occurrence above, is not correct.