In looking over Martin Mathée's notes on Dioscorides, published 1553, I find that Italian women of his time used to make a cosmetic of the root of the Arum, commonly called "Lords and Ladies." The mixture, he says, makes the skin wondrously
white and shining, and is called gersa. ("Ils font des racines d'Aron de l'eaue et de lexive," &c., tom. v. p. 98.)
Hughes Fraser Halle, LL.D.
South Lambeth.
Footnote 1:[(return)]
[See "N. & Q.," Vol. vi., pp. 199. 252. 304.]
Minor Notes.
Forensic Jocularities.—The epigram on "Four Lawyers," given in Vol. ix., p. 103. of "N. & Q.," has recalled to my recollection one intended to characterise four worthies of the past generation, which I heard some thirty years since, and which I send for preservation among other flies in your amber. It is supposed to record the history of a case:
"Mr. Leech