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 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 "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
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:--