n 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 C^{ie}." The English will be best
understood by being placed in juxtaposition with the original French:

"Le Vermouth

est un vin blanc legerement amer, parfume avec des plantes aromatiques
bienfaisantes.

"Cette boisson est tonique, stimulante, febrifuge et astringente: prise
avec de l'eau elle est aperitive et raffraichissante: elle est aussi un
puissant preservatif contre les fievres et la dyssenterie, maladies si
frequentes dans les pays chauds, pour lesquels elle a ete
particulierement composee."

"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.

_Blanco White_ (Vol. vii., pp. 404. 486.).--Your correspondent H. C. K. is
right in his impression that the sonnet commencing

"Mysterious Night! when our first parents knew," &c.

was written by Blanco White. See his _Life_ (3 vols., Chapman, 1845), vol.
iii. p. 48.

J. K. R. W.

_Pistols_ (Vol. viii., p. 7.).--In Strype's Life of Sir Thomas Smith,
_Works_, Oxon. 1821, mention is made of a statute or proclamation by the
Queen in the year 1575, which refers to that of 33 Hen. VIII. c. 6.,
alluded to by your correspondent J. F. M., and in which the words _pistol_
and _pistolet_ are introduced:

"The Queen calling to mind how unseemly a thing it was, in so quiet and
peaceable a realm, to have men so armed; ... did charge and command all
her subjects, of what estate or degree soever they were, that in no
wise, in their journeying, going, or riding, they carried about them
privily or openly any dag, or pistol, or any other harquebuse, gun, or
such weapon for fire, under the length expr