ur in the
afternoon. Thus we are told how:--

"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