* * * * *

MINOR NOTES

_Cinderella, or the Glass Slipper._--Two centuries ago furs were so
rare, and therefore so highly valued, that the wearing of them was
restricted by several sumptuary laws to kings and princes. Sable, in
those laws called _vair_, was the subject of countless regulations: the
exact quality permitted to be worn by persons of different grades, and
the articles of dress to which it might be applied, were defined most
strictly. Perrault's tale of _Cinderella_ originally marked the dignity
conferred on her by the fairy by her wearing a slipper of _vair_, a
privilege then confined to the highest rank of princesses. An error of
the press, now become inveterate, changed _vair_ into _verre_, and the
slipper of _sable_ was suddenly converted into a _glass_ slipper.

Jarltzberg.


_Mistletoe on Oaks._--In Vol. ii., p. 163., I observed a citation on the
extreme rarity of _mistletoe on oaks_, from Dr. Giles and Dr. Daubeny;
and with reference to it, and to some remarks of Professor Henslow in
the _Gardeners' Chronicle_, I communicated to the latter journal, last
week, the fact of my having, at this present time, a bunch of that plant
growing in great luxuriance on an oak aged upwards of seventy years.

I beg leave to repeat it for the use of your work, and to add, what I
previously appended as likely to be interesting to the archæologist of
Wales or the Marches, that the oak bearing it stands about half a mile
N.W. of my residence here, on the earthen mound of Badamscourt, once a