St. Dominic (Vol. vii., p. 356.).—Your correspondent Bookworm will find in any chronology a very satisfactory reason why Machiavelli could not reply to the summons of Benedict XIV., unless, indeed, the Pope had made use of "the power of the keys," to call him up for a brief space to satisfy his curiosity.
J. S. Warden.
Names of Plants (Vol. viii., p. 37.).—Ale-hoof means useful in, or to, ale; Ground-ivy having been used in brewing before the introduction of hops. "The women of our northern parts" (says John Gerard), "especially about Wales or Cheshire, do tunne the herbe Ale-hoof into their ale ... being tunned up in ale and drunke, it also purgeth the head from rhumaticke humours flowing from the brain." From the aforesaid tunning, it was also called Tun-hoof (World of Words); and in Gerard, Tune-hoof.
Considering what was meant by Lady in the names of plants, we should refrain from supposing that Neottia spiralis was called the Lady-traces "sensu obsc.," even if those who are more skilled in such matters than I am can detect such a sense. I cannot learn what a lady's traces are; but I suspect plaitings of her hair to be meant. "Upon the spiral sort," says Gerard, "are placed certaine small white flowers, trace fashion," while other sorts grow, he says, "spike fashion," or "not trace fashion." Whence I infer, that in his day trace conveyed the idea of spiral.
A. N.
Specimens of Foreign English (Vol. iii. passim.).—I have copied the following from the label on a bottle of liqueur, manufactured at Marseilles by "L. Noilly fils et Cie." The English will be best understood by being placed in juxtaposition with the original French:
"Le Vermouth
est un vin blanc légèrement amer, parfumé avec des plantes aromatiques bienfaisantes.
"Cette boisson est tonique, stimulante, fébrifuge et astringente: prise avec de l'eau elle est apéritive et raffraichissante: elle est aussi un puissant préservatif contre les fièvres et la dyssenterie, maladies si fréquentes dans les pays chauds, pour lesquels elle a été particulièrement composée."
"The Wermouth
is a brightly bitter and perfumed with aromatical and good vegetables white wine.
"This is tonic, stimulant, febrifuge and costive drinking; mixed with water it is aperitive, refreshing, and also a powerful preservative of fivers and bloody-flux; those latters are very usual in warmth countries, and of course that liquor has just been particularly made up for that occasion."
Henry H. Breen.
St. Lucia.