"Eat cress to learn more wit."
Of fruit proverbs we are told that,"If you would enjoy the fruit, pluck not the flower."
And again:--"When all fruit fails, welcome haws."
And "If you would have fruit, you must carry the leaf to the grave;"
which Ray explains, "You must transplant your trees just about the fall of
the leaf," and then there is the much-quoted rhyme:--
"Fruit out of season,
Sorrow out of reason."
Respecting the vine, it is said:--"Make the vine poor, and it will make you rich,"
That is, prune off its branches; and another adage is to this effect:
"Short boughs, long vintage." The constant blooming of the gorse has
given rise to a popular Northamptonshire proverb:--
"When gorse is out of bloom, kissing is out of season."
The health-giving properties of various plants have long been in the
highest repute, and have given rise to numerous well-known proverbs,
which are still heard in many a home. Thus old Gerarde, describing the
virtues of the mallow, tells us:--
"If that of health you have any special care,
Use French mallows, that to the body wholesome are."
Then there is the time-honoured adage which says that:--"He that would live for aye
Must eat sage in May."
And Aubrey has bequeathed us the following piece of advice:--"Eat leeks in Lide, and ramsines in May,
And all the year after physicians may play."