The Folk-lore of Plants

Some plants, again, have gained a notoriety from opening or shutting their flowers at the sun's bidding; in allusion to which Perdita remarks in the "Winter's Tale" (iv. 3):-- "The marigold, that goes to bed with the sun, and with him rises weeping." It was also erroneously said, like the sun-flower, to turn its blossoms to the sun, the latter being thus described by Thomson:-- "The lofty follower of the sun, Sad when he sets, shuts up her yellow leaves, Drooping all night, and, when he warm returns, Points her enamour'd bosom to his ray." Another plant of this kind is the endive, which is said to open its petals at eight o'clock in the morning, and to close them at four 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:--