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-glass;
while the small purslane and the common garden lettuce are also
included in the flower-clock.[6]
Among further items of weather-lore associated 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.