And a stour stallion was he."[1]

In some folk-tales fairies are represented as employing nuts for their
mode of conveyance, in allusion to which Shakespeare, in "Romeo and
Juliet," makes Mercutio speak of Queen Mab's arrival in a nut-shell.
Similarly the fairies selected certain plants for their attire. Although
green seems to have been their popular colour, yet the fairies of the
moon were often clad in heath-brown or lichen-dyed garments, whence the
epithet of "Elfin-grey." Their petticoats, for instance, were composed
of the fox-glove, a flower in demand among Irish fairies for their
gloves, and in some parts of that country for their caps, where it is
nicknamed "Lusmore," while the _Cuscuta epithymum_ is known in Jersey as
"fairies' hair." Their raiment was made of the fairy flax, and the
wood-anemone, with its fragile blossoms, was supposed to afford them
shelter in wet weather. Shakespeare has represented Ariel reclining in
"a cowslip's bell," and further speaks of the small crimson drops in its
blossom as "gold coats spots"--"these be rubies, fairy favours." And at
the present day the cowslip is still known in Lincolnshire as the "fairy
cup." Its popular German name is "key-flower;" and no flower has had in
that country so extensive an association with preternatural wealth. A
well-known legend relates how "Bertha" entices some favoured child by
exquisite primroses to a doorway overgrown with flowers. This is the
door to an enchanted castle. When the key-flower touches it, the door
gently opens, and the favoured mortal passes to a room with vessels
covered over with primroses, in which are treasures of gold and jewels.
When the treasure is secured the primroses must be replaced, otherwise
the finder will be for ever followed by a "black dog."

Sometimes their mantles are made of the gossamer, the cobwebs which may
be seen in large quantities on the furze bushes; and so of King Oberon