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 dyke, 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, 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 illustration of the extreme 1 See Notes and Queries, 1st Ser. ii. 511. sensitiveness of certain plants to surrounding influences, how the Hedysarums have been well known ever since the days of Linnæus 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." CHAPTER XI. PLANT PROVERBS. A HOST of curious proverbs have, from the earliest period, clustered round the vegetable world, most of which gathered from experience and observationembody 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 "nobody is fond of fading flowers," has a far deeper signification, reminding us that everything associated 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 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 quantity 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 cock at a gooseberry." Then the idea of durableness is thus expressed in a "An eldern stake and a blackthorn ether [hedge], 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 1 See Akerman's "Wiltshire Glossary," p. 18. |