The Folk-lore of Plants Part 12

"And goodly now the noon-tide hour, When from his high meridian tower The sun looks down in majesty, What time about, the gra.s.sy lea.

The goat's-beard, prompt his rise to hail, With broad expanded disk, in veil Close mantling wraps its yellow head, And goes, as peasants say, to bed."

The dandelion has been nicknamed the peasant's clock, its flowers opening very early in the morning; while its feathery seed-tufts have long been in requisition as a barometer with children:--

"Dandelion, with globe of down, The schoolboy's clock in every town, Which the truant puffs amain To conjure lost hours back again."

Among other flowers possessing a similar feature may be noticed the wild succory, creeping mallow, purple sandwort, small bindweed, common nipplewort, and smooth sow-thistle. Then of course there is the pimpernel, known as the shepherd's clock and poor man's weather-gla.s.s; while the small purslane and the common garden lettuce are also included in the flower-clock.[6]

Among further items of weather-lore a.s.sociated with May, we are told how he that "sows oats in May gets little that way," and "He who mows in May will have neither fruit nor hay." Calm weather in June "sets corn in tune;" and a Suffolk adage says:--

"Cut your thistles before St. John, You will have two instead of one."

But "Midsummer rain spoils hay and grain," whereas it is commonly said that,

"A leafy May, and a warm June, Bring on the harvest very soon."

Again, boisterous wet weather during the month of July is to be deprecated, for, as the old adage runs:--

"No tempest, good July, Lest the corn look surly."

Flowers of this kind are very numerous, and under a variety of forms prevail largely in our own and other countries, an interesting collection of which have been collected by Mr. Swainson in his interesting little volume on "Weather Folk-lore," in which he has given the parallels in foreign countries. It must be remembered, however, that a great number of these plant-sayings originated very many years ago--long before the alteration in the style of the calendar--which in numerous instances will account for their apparent contradictory character. In noticing, too, these proverbs, account must be taken of the variation of climate in different countries, for what applies to one locality does not to another. Thus, for instance, according to a Basque proverb, "A wet May, a fruitful year," whereas it is said in Corsica, "A rainy May brings little barley and no wheat." Instances of this kind are of frequent occurrence, and of course are in many cases explained by the difference of climate. But in comparing all branches of folk-lore, similar variations, as we have already observed, are noticeable, to account for which is often a task full of difficulty.

Of the numerous other instances of weather-lore a.s.sociated with agricultural operations, it is said in relation to rain:--

"Sow beans in the mud, and they'll grow like wood."

And a saying in East Anglia is to this effect:--

"Sow in the slop (or sop), heavy at top."

A further admonition advises the farmer to

"Sow wheat in dirt, and rye in dust;"

While, according to a piece of folk-lore current in East Anglia, "Wheat well-sown is half-grown." The Scotch have a proverb warning the farmer against premature sowing:--

"Nae hurry wi' your corns, Nae hurry wi' your harrows; Snaw lies ahint the d.y.k.e, Mair may come and fill the furrows."

And according to another old adage we are told how:--

"When the aspen leaves are no bigger than your nail, Is the time to look out for truff and peel."[7]

In short, it will be found that most of our counties have their items of weather-lore; many of which, whilst varying in some respect, are evidently modifications of one and the same belief. In many cases, too, it must be admitted that this species of weather-wisdom is not based altogether on idle fancy, but in accordance with recognised habits of plants under certain conditions of weather. Indeed, it has been pointed out that so sensitive are various flowers to any change in the temperature or the amount of light, that it has been noticed that there is as much as one hour's difference between the time when the same flower opens at Paris and Upsala. It is, too, a familiar fact to students of vegetable physiology that the leaves of _Porleria hygrometrica_ fold down or rise up in accordance with the state of the atmosphere. In short, it was pointed out in the _Standard_, in ill.u.s.tration of the extreme sensitiveness of certain plants to surrounding influences, how the _Haedysarums_ have been well known ever since the days of Linnseus to suddenly begin to quiver without any apparent cause, and just as suddenly to stop. Force cannot initiate the movement, though cold will stop it, and heat will set in motion again the suspended animation of the leaves. If artificially kept from moving they will, when released, instantly begin their task anew and with redoubled energy. Similarly the leaves of the _Colocasia esculenta_--the tara of the Sandwich Islands--will often shiver at irregular times of the day and night, and with such energy that little bells hung on the petals tinkle. And yet, curious to say, we are told that the keenest eye has not yet been able to detect any peculiarity in these plants to account for these strange motions. It has been suggested that they are due to changes in the weather of such a slight character that, "our nerves are incapable of appreciating them, or the mercury of recording their accompanying oscillations."

Footnotes:

1. Tylor's "Primitive Culture," 1873, i. 130.

2. See "English Folk-lore," pp. 42, 43.

3. "Primitive Manners and Customs," p. 74.

4. Dublin University Magazine, December 1873, p. 677.

5. See Swainson's "Weather-lore," p. 257.

6. See "Flower-lore," p. 226.

7. See _Notes and Queries_, 1st Ser. II. 511.

CHAPTER XI

PLANT PROVERBS.

A host of curious proverbs have, from the earliest period, cl.u.s.tered round the vegetable world, most of which--gathered from experience and observation--embody an immense amount of truth, besides in numerous instances conveying an application of a moral nature. These proverbs, too, have a very wide range, and on this account are all the more interesting from the very fact of their referring to so many conditions of life. Thus, the familiar adage which tells us that "n.o.body is fond of fading flowers," has a far deeper signification, reminding us that everything a.s.sociated with change and decay must always be a matter of regret. To take another trite proverb of the same kind, we are told how "truths and roses have thorns about them," which is absolutely true; and there is the well-known expression "to pipe in an ivy leaf," which signifies "to go and engage in some futile or idle pursuit" which cannot be productive of any good. The common proverb, "He hath sown his wild oats," needs no comment; and the inclination of evil to override good is embodied in various adages, such, as, "The weeds o'ergrow the corn,"

while the tenacity with which evil holds its ground is further expressed in such sayings as this--"The frost hurts not weeds." The poisonous effects, again, of evil is exemplified thus--"One ill-bred mars a whole pot of pottage," and the rapidity with which it spreads has, amongst other proverbs, been thus described, "Evil weeds grow apace." Speaking of weeds in their metaphorical sense, we may quote one further adage respecting them:--

"A weed that runs to seed Is a seven years' weed."

And the oft-quoted phrase, "It will be a nosegay to him as long as he lives," implies that disagreeable actions, instead of being lost sight of, only too frequently cling to a man in after years, or, as Ray says, "stink in his nostrils." The man who abandons some good enterprise for a worthless, or insignificant, undertaking is said to "cut down an oak and plant a thistle," of which there is a further version, "to cut down an oak and set up a strawberry." The truth of the next adage needs no comment--"Usurers live by the fall of heirs, as swine by the droppings of acorns."

Things that are slow but sure in their progress are the subject of a well-known Gloucestershire saying:--

"It is as long in coming as Cotswold barley."

"The corn in this cold country," writes Ray, "exposed to the winds, bleak and shelterless, is very backward at the first, but afterwards overtakes the forwardest in the country, if not in the barn, in the bushel, both for the quant.i.ty and goodness thereof." According to the Italians, "Every grain hath its bran," which corresponds with our saying, "Every bean hath its black," The meaning being that nothing is without certain imperfections. A person in extreme poverty is often described as being "as bare as the birch at Yule Even," and an ill-natured or evil-disposed person who tries to do harm, but cannot, is commonly said to:--

"Jump at it like a c.o.c.k at a gooseberry."

Then the idea of durableness is thus expressed in a Wiltshire proverb:--

"An eldern stake and a blackthorn ether [hedge], Will make a hedge to last for ever"--

an elder stake being commonly said to last in the ground longer than an iron bar of the same size.[1]

A person who is always on the alert to make use of opportunities, and never allows a good thing to escape his grasp, is said to "have a ready mouth for a ripe cherry." The rich beauty, too, of the cherry, which causes it to be gathered, has had this moral application attached to it:--

"A woman and a cherry are painted for their own harm."

Speaking of cherries, it may be mentioned that the awkwardness of eating them on account of their stones, has given rise to sundry proverbs, as the following:--

"Eat peas with the king, and cherries with the beggar,"