WILD FLOWEES OE JTJITE. 243 



find so many flowers have sprung up around us, that 

 unless numbers are altogether neglected, it is abso- 

 lutely necessary to recount more of those that belong 

 to the delightful month of June. 



I .may here mention a subject not previously dilated 

 upon the coincidence of the flowering of certain 

 plants with particular days or festivals. Rustic ob- 

 servers, men without books, having often observed 

 particular flowers appearing almost constantly when 

 they were engaged upon some ever-recurring employ- 

 ment, or on some holiday they delighted in, at length 

 associated these flowers with the anniversaries refer- 

 red to, and conceived that the times of their obser- 

 vation had not legitimately arrived, if the flowers 

 were not apparent in their beauty. In this way St. 

 George's day became associated with the ~blue-lell, on 

 account of its being generally in flower at that time, 

 hence the old lines 



" On St. George's day, when blue is worn, 

 The hare-bells blue the fields adorn." 



The Gruelder Eose (Viburnum opulus), or " Snow- 

 ball-tree" of the gardens, is always associated with 

 "Whitsuntide, and hence its silver globes are called 

 " "Wliitsun bosses" by the rustics, and it is seldom 

 they are not fully expanded by "Whitsun Sunday. 

 The latter end of May is indeed their correct flower- 

 ing time, though in full perfection the first week in 

 June. 



D YEE has made sheep-shearing to correspond with 

 the flowering of the Elder (Sambucus nigra). 



" If verdant Elder spreads 

 Her silver flowers, if humble Daisies yield 

 To yellow Crowfoot and luxuriant grass, 

 Gay shearing- time approaches." 



E2 



