“On upland slopes the shepherds mark
    The hour when, to the dial true,
  Cichorium to the towering lark,
    Lifts her soft eye, serenely blue.”

And as another floral index of the time of day may be noticed the goat’s-beard, opening at sunrise and closing at noon—­hence one of its popular names of “Go to bed at noon.”  This peculiarity is described by Bishop Mant:—­

  “And goodly now the noon-tide hour,
  When from his high meridian tower
  The sun looks down in majesty,
  What time about, the grassy 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-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.