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24. The/rog" has changed his yellow vest, 

 And in a russet coat is drest ; 



25. Thougli June, the air is cold yet still ; 



26. The blackbird's mellow voice is shrill j 



27. My dog. so alter'il is his taste, 



Quits mutton bones, on grass to feast ; 

 29. And see yon rooks, how odd their flight. 

 They imitate the gliding kite. 

 And seem precipitate to tall, 

 As il'they felt the piercing hall; 

 'Twill surely rain, I see, with sorrow. 

 Our jaunt cannot take place to-morrow. 



In the foregoing rhymes, attributed to 

 Dr. Jenner, are comprised nearly all the 

 natural phenomena which predicate ap- 

 proacliing rain, and most of them are 

 sustained by our more scienced know- 

 ledge. 



Thus the wind, when rain is ap- 

 proaching, causes more moaning and 



has been observed by Linnxus, adds 

 Sir J. E. Smith, that flowers lose this 

 fine sensibility, either after the anthers 

 have performed their otBce, or when 

 deprived of them artificially; nor do I 

 doubt the fact. I have had reason to 

 think that, during a long continuance of 

 wet, the Anagnllis is sometimes ex- 

 hausted ; and it is evident that very sud- 

 den thunder showers oftener take such 

 flowers by surprise, the previous state 

 of the atmosphere not having been such 

 as to give them due warning. 



The cracking of furniture is the ne- 

 cessary consequence of the dry woody 

 fibre expanding when exposed to moist- 

 er air. Distant objects appear nearer 

 when rain is at hand, because the air is 

 rarer at such times, and objects always 

 whistling sounds in passing through the [ appear distinct in proportion to the 

 crevices and crannies of our houses, on , rarity of the gaseous medium through 

 the same principle that all other gases, which they are viewed. Sivallou-s fly 



in pro|)ortion as they are more or less 

 heated, or more or less dry, cause 

 louder or lower sounds in passing 

 through the orifices of small tubes. 



Soot falls because it absorbs more 

 moisture from the air as rain approaches, 

 and becoming heavier breaks away from 

 its slender attachment to the chimney's 

 walls. A halo round the moon is caused 

 by the rays of its light passing through 

 moisture precipitated from the air, and 

 the larger the halo, the nearer is such 

 precipitated moisture to the earth, and 

 consequently the rain is at hand. 



Walls become damp from the same 

 cause that soot falls, when rain is ap- 



low at such times, probably for two rea- 

 sons : insects are then more busy near 

 the earth's surface, and the rarity of 

 the atmosphere renders flying more la- 

 borious in proportion to the height to 

 which a bird soars. The changed habits 

 of animals at the approach of rain, are 

 perhaps to be accounted for by the al- 

 tered state of the atmospheric pressure, 

 and of the air's electricity causing a 

 change of sensations which warns them 

 by past experience that the season of 

 discomfort or of pleasure, as their na- 

 ture may be, is coming upon them. 



These natural phenomena combined 

 with a careful attention to the indica- 



proaching, namely, because the moist- ^ tions of the Barometer, are much less 

 ure in the air is more abundant, and in erring guides than tables founded upon 

 a state of mixture with it more easily the moon's changes. It is impossible, 

 separable. Walls that thus become | in the present imperfect state of our 

 damp, contain chloride of calcium, or meteorological knowledge, to say that 

 other salts which are deliquescent, that the moon has no influence upon the 

 is, absorb moisture from the air. Ditches weather, but it is next to certain that 

 smell in rainy weather, because all other influences are much more power- 

 odours are conveyed with more facility ful and controlling. The same moon 

 by damp than by dry air. Not only rises and sets and changes in Hindoo- 

 does the pimpernell(/in(igaZ/« ari'sns/s) stan as in England, yet in that climate, 

 close its flowers when exposed to damp its wet and hot and cold seasons, its 

 air, but those of many other plants are , northeast and southwest monsoons ar- 

 similarly sensitive. Co;jro/i-«/usarfens?s I rive with a changeless regularity and 

 (field Hindweed), Anagallis arreTisiS, intensity that demonstrate the moon's 

 Calendula pluvialis, Arenaria rubra \ influence there has no paramount con- 



(purple Sandwort), Stellaria media 

 (Chickweed or Stitchwort), and many 



The facts established by Mr. Forster 



others, are well known to shut up their and other acute observers of the ba- 

 flowers against the approach of rain ; rometer, appear to be these: — 1. Not 

 whence the Anagallis has been called j the great height or depression of the 

 " the Poor Man's Weather Glass." It! mercury is so much to be regarded as 

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