garretiere. Et si le roi autrement faisoit, ce
seroit contrevenir au serment qu'il a fait par les statuz du dit
ordre."

Will the Emperor of Russia be deprived of his ill-deserved honours, or what
is the course now pursued? It was not unusual formerly for kings to
exchange orders, and to return them in case of war.

OSCAR BROWNING.

* * * * *

Queries.

SIR HENRY WOTTON'S VERSES, "THE CHARACTER OF A HAPPY LIFE."

Owing to the almost perfect identity of these verses with some by a German
poet, George Rudolph Weckerlin, a doubt has been expressed in a German work
as to whether they are to be considered the production of Sir Henry Wotton,
or a translation from the _Geistliche und weltliche Gedichte_ of Weckerlin,
a lyrical poet of considerable eminence and popularity in his day, and who
died in London in 1651. Weckerlin was employed in important affairs
connected with the Protestants in Germany during the Thirty Years' War, as
secretary to an embassy in London from that country; and was also employed
on several occasions by James I. and Charles I. An edition of Weckerlin's
_Poems_ was edited by him while he resided in London, and was printed at
Amsterdam in 1641, and again in 1648. A previous collection had {421}
appeared at Stutgart in 1618. Many of his poems, which he had left in MS.
with his brother Ludwig in Germany, perished with him during the horrors of
the war. "What has become," Weckerlin feelingly exclaims, "of my _Myrta_,
that dear poem, composed of so many sonnets and stanzas?"

Perhaps some of the readers of "N. & Q.," who are conversant with the
literature of England and Germany during the period alluded to, may be able
to solve the question as to the real author of the verses mentioned.

JOHN MACRAY.

Oxford.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

_Plants and Flowers._--Might I inquire of your correspondent EIRIONNACH why
his long-promised Notes on the "ecclesiastical and rustic pet names" of
plants and flowers have never been forthcoming? I have often lingered on
the threshold of the "garden full of sunshine and of bees," where
EIRIONNACH has laboured; would he kindly be my guide to the pleasant
domain, and indicate (without trespassing on your columns I mean) the
richest gatherings of the legendary lore and poetry of the vegetable
kingdom? Are there any collections of similes drawn from plants and
flowers? Dr. Aitkin has broken