244 WILD FLOWEES OF 



This, according to FOESTEE, as marked in the ephe- 

 meris of nature, should be about the 5th of June, and 

 in average years the Elder is often in flower by that 

 time fully; but in the ungenial season of 1838, I 

 observed no flowering Elder till June 23d, and even 

 in the year 1839, although not quite so bad, no Elder 

 was in flower until June 14th. In the very warm 

 season of 1848, it flowered as early as May 16th. 

 The Elder is one of those domestic trees seldom seen 

 far from the houses or cottages of man, and therefore 

 particularly suited for the purposes of a rustic calendar. 

 Though now pretty widely dispersed by birds, it is 

 rarely observed in primitive woodlands, and has pro- 

 bably followed human immigration, being planted not 

 only for its utility, but from superstitious motives. 

 The Elder, in fact, was accounted of old one of the 

 antidotes to sorcery, as precluding the access of sor- 

 cerers and defeating their art. Hence it has been 

 said that the gardens and houses of our ancestors 

 were protected from witchery by the Elder-tree.* 

 BOEEHAAVE, the celebrated physician of Leyden, is 

 reported to have held this tree in so great veneration, 

 that he seldom passed it without taking off his hat, 

 and paying reverence to it ! 



Poor CLAEE, the Northamptonshire poet, in his 

 Shepherd's Calendar, mentions a curious custom as 

 still existing at the termination of the sheep-shearing 

 at farm houses, and probably derived from long anti- 

 quity when a damsel presents every shepherd, who 

 has been employed in the work, with a bouquet of 

 flowers commonly called " clipping posies." As 

 CLABE mentions several flowers that appear in the 

 selection, I shall quote his homely strain. 



* DALYELL'S Superstitions of Scotland. 



