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Before storms kine and also sheep assemble at one corner of the field, and are observed to turn all their heads toward the quarter from whence the wind doth not blow.

The appearance of sea gulls, petrels, or other sea fowl in the inlands, indicates stormy weather.

In fine weather the bat is observed to continue flying about very late of an evening.

In autumn before rain some flies bite, and others become very troublesome, and gnats are more apt to sting.

When flocks of wild geese are observed flying in a westward or southern direction in autumn, it indicates a hard winter.

The floating of gossamer, and its alighting on the rigging of ships, foretels fine weather.

The clamorous croaking of frogs indicates rainy weather.

The appearance of beetles flying about of an evening in summer, indicates that the next day will be fair.

Before rain dogs are apt to grow very sleepy and dull, and to lay all day before the fire.

Before rain moles throw up the earth

more than usual.

The appearance of rare foreign birds in this country, such as rollers, hoopoos, &c.

indicates hard weather.

When spiders are seen crawling on the walls more than usual, rain will probably

ensue.

The much barking of dogs in the night frequently indicates a change in

the weather.

When the trees and hedges are very

full of berries, it indicates a hard winter. The abundance of woodseare and honeydew on herbs indicates fair weather, as does floating gossamer.

It is said in Wiltshire, that the dunpickles or moor buzzards alight in great

numbers on the downs before rain.

Before storms the missel thrush is observed to sing particularly loud, and to continue so till the commencement of the rain; from which e cumstance it is in some places called the storm cock.

It is a sign of rain when pigeons return slowly to the dovehouses.

When bees do not go out as usual, but keep in or about their hives, rain may be expected.

Before wind, swine run squeaking about as though they were mad; which

has given rise to the notion that pigs can see the wind.

Before rain the pintados called comebacks squall more than usual; as do peacocks.

The early appearance of woodcocks, snipes, swinepipes, fieldfares, &c. are prognostications of severe winters.

When the dew lies plenteously upon the grass in the evening, the next day will probably be fine; when there is little or no dew, probably wet.

Dr. Forster observes, on the authority of Virgil," that the blowing about of feathers, or any light substances on the water, is also a sign of rain."

SPRING.

In the "Indicator" Mr. Leigh Hunt discourses of this beautiful season with his usual grace. He says

"The spring is now complete. The winds have done their work. The shaken air, well tempered and equalized, has subsided; the genial rains, however thickly they may come, do not saturate the ground, beyond the power of the sun to dry it up again. There are clear crystal mornings; noons of blue sky and white cloud; nights, in which the growing moon seems to lie looking at the stars, like a young shepherdess at her flock.

most apt and perfect mark of the season, "Then the young green. This is the

the true issuing forth of the spring. The trees and bushes are putting forth their crisp fans; the lilac is loaded with bud; the meadows are thick with the

bright young grass, running into sweeps of white and gold with the daisies and riches, in a shower of silver blossoms. buttercups. The orchards announce their The earth in fertile woods is spread with yellow and blue carpets of primroses, violets, and hyacinths, over which the birch-trees, like stooping nyinphs, hang with their thickening hair. Lilies of the valley, stocks, columbines, lady-smocks, and the intensely red piony which seems to anticipate the full glow of summertime, all come out to wait upon the season, like fairies from their subterraneous palaces."

FLORAL DIRECTORY.

Cowslip. Primula Veris. Dedicated to St. Catharine of Sienna

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So hath "divinest Spenser" represented the fifth month of the year, in the grand pageant which, to all who have seen it, is still present; for neither the laureate's office nor the poet's art hath devised a spectacle more gorgeous. Castor and Pollux, the twinnes of Leda," who appeared to sailors in storms with lambeut fires on their heads, mythologists have constellated in the firmament, and made still propitious to the mariner. Maia, the brightest of the Pleiades, from whom some say this month derived its name, is

Spenser.

fabled to have been the daughter of Atlas, the supporter of the world, and Pleione, a sea-nymph. Others ascribe its name to its having been dedicated by Romaius tr the Majores, or Roman senators.

Verstegan affirms of the Anglo-Saxons, that "the pleasant moneth of May they termed by the name of Trimilki, because in that moneth they began to milke their kine three times in the day."

Scarcely a poet but praises, or describes or alludes to the beauties of this month, Darwin sings it as the offspring of the

star beams, and invites it to approach and receive the greetings of the elementa belgs:

Born in yon blaze of orient sky,

Sweet May! thy radiant form unfold; Unclose thy blue voluptuous eye,

And wave thy shadowy locks of gold. For thee the fragrant zephyrs blow,

For thee descends the sunny shower; The rills in softer murmurs flow,

And brighter blossoms gem the bower. Light Graces dress'd in flowery wreaths, And tiptoe Joys their hands combine; And Love his sweet contagion breathes, And laughing dances round thy shrine.

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Song on May Morning.

Now the bright morning star, day's harbinger,
Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her
The flowery May, who from her green lap throws
The yellow cowslip, and the pale primrose.
Hail, bounteous May! that dost inspire
Mirth, and youth, and warm desire;
Woods and groves are of thy dressing,
Hill and dale both boast thy blessing!
Thus we salute thee with our early song,
And welcome thee, and wish thee long.

With exquisite feeling and exuberant grace he derives Mirth from

The frolic wind that breathes the spring
Zephyr, with Aurora playing
As he met her once a Maying;
and, with beautiful propriety, as regards
the season, he makes the scenery

-beds of violets blue,
And fresh blown roses wash'd in dew.
The first of his "sonnets" is to the night-

ingale warbling on a "bloomy spray" at eve, while, as he figures,

"The jolly hours lead on propitious May

In "a Conversational Poem written in
April," by Mr. Coleridge, there is a de-
scription of the nightingale's song, so
splendid that it may take the place of
extracts from other poets who have cele-
brated the charms of the coming month,
wherein this bird's high melody prevails
with increasing power:-
All is still,

A balmy night! and tho' the stars be dim,
Yet let us think upon the vernal showers
That gladden the green earth, and we shall find
A pleasure in the dimness of the stars.
And hark? the nightingale begins its song.
He crowds, and hurries, and precipitates
With fast thick warble his delicious notes,
As he were fearful, that an April night
Would be too short for him to utter forth
His love-chant, and disburthen his full soul
Of all its music!

-I know a grove
Of large extent, hard by a castle huge
Which the great lord inhabits not: and so
This grove is wild with tangling underwood,
And the trim walks are broken up, and grass

Thin grass and king-cups grow within the paths
But never elsewhere in one place I knew
So many nightingales: and far and near
In wood and thicket over the wide grove
They answer and provoke each other's songs-
With skirmish and capricious passagings,
And murmurs musical and swift jug jug,
And one low piping sound more sweet than all-
Stirring the air with such a harmony,

That should you close your eyes, you might almost
Forget it was not day! On moonlight bushes,

Whose dewy leafits are but half disclos'd,

You may perchance behold them on the twigs,

Their bright, bright eyes, their eyes both bright and full
Glist'ning, while many a glow-worm in the shade
Lights up her love-torch.-

———Oft, a moment's space,

What time the moon was lost behind a cloud.
Hath heard a pause of silence: till the moon
Emerging, hath awaken'd earth and sky
With one sensation, and those wakeful birds
Have all burst forth in choral minstrelsy,
As if one quick and sudden gale had swept
An hundred airy harps! And I have watch'd
Many a nightingale perch'd giddily

On blos❜my twig, still swinging from the breeze,
And to that motion tune his wanton song,
Like tipsy Joy that reels with tossing head.

May 1.

St. Philip, and St. James the less. St.
Asaph, Bp. of Llan-Elway, A. D. 590.
St. Marcon, or Marculfus, A. D. 558. St.
Sigismund, king of Burgundy, 6th Cent

St. Philip and St. James.
Philip is supposed to have been the
first of Christ's apostles, and to have died
at Hierapolis, in Phrygia. James, also
surnamed the Just, whose name is borne
by the epistle in the New Testament, and
Who was in great repute among the Jews,
was martyred in a tumult in the temple,
about the year 62.* St. Philip_and St.
James are in the church of England

Calendar.

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And such, when heaven with penal flame
Shall purge the globe, that golden day
Restoring, o'er man's brightened frame
Haply such gale again shall play.

Hail! thou, the fleet year's pride and prime!
Hail! day, which fame shall bid to bloom!
Hail! image of primeval time!
Hail! sample of a world to come!-

Buchanan, by Langhorne.

In behalf of this ancient festival, a noble authoress contributes a little "forget me not:"

The First of May

Colin met Sylvia on the green,

Once on the charming first of May, And shepherds ne'er tell false I ween, Yet 'twas by chance the shepherds say

Colin he bow'd and blush'd, then said, Will you, sweet maid, this first of May Begin the dance by Colin led,

To make this quite his holiday?

Sylvia replied, I ne'er from home
Yet ventur'd, till this first of May;
It is not fit for maids to roam,
And make a shepherd's holiday.

It is most fit, replied the youth,
That Sylvia should this first of May
By me be taught that love and truth
Can make of life a holiday.

Lady Craven,

"We call," says Mr. Leigh Ilunt"we call upon the admirers of the good and beautiful to help us in rescuing nature from obloquy.' All you that are lovers of nature in books,-lovers of music, painting, and poetry,-lovers of sweet sounds, and odours, and colours, and all the eloquent and happy face of the rural world with its eyes of sunshine, -you, that are lovers of your species, of youth, and health, and old age,-of manly strength in the manly, of nymphlike graces in the female,—of air, of exercise, of happy currents in your veins, of the light in great Nature's picture,-of all the gentle spiriting, the loveliness, the luxury, that now stands under the smile of heaven, silent and solitary as your fellow-creatures have left it,-go forth on May-day, or on the earliest fine May morning, if that be not fine, and pluck your flowers and your green boughs to adorn your rooms with, and to show that you do not live in vain. These April rains (for May has not yet come, accordng to the old style, which is the proper

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This was the great rural festival of our forefathers. Their hearts responded merrily to the cheerfulness of the season. At the dawn of May morning the lads and lasses left their towns and villages, and repairing to the woodlands by sound of music, they gathered the May, or blossomed branches of the trees, and bound them with wreaths of flowers; then returning to their homes by sunrise, they decorated the lattices and doors with the sweetsmelling spoil of their joyous journey, and spent the remaining hours in sports and pastimes. Spenser's "Shepherd's Calendar" poetically records these customs in a beautiful eclogue:

Youths folke now flocken in every where To gather May - buskets, and smelling breere;

And home they hasten, the postes to dight,

And all the kirke pillers, ere daylight, With hawthorne buds, and sweet eglantine, And girlonds of roses, and soppes in wine.

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maide.

all,

To see these folkes make such jovisaunce,
Made my hart after the pipe to daunce.
Tho' to the greene-wood they speeden them
To fetchen home May with their musicall:
And home they bringen, in a royall throue,
Crowned as king; and his queen attone
Was Ladie Flora, on whom did attend
A faire flock of faeries, and a fresh bend
Of lovely nymphs. O, that I were there
To helpen the ladies their May-bush beare.

Forbear censure, gentle readers and kind hearers, for quotations from poets,

Examir.er 1818.

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