DORSET WEATHER LORE. 149 



(ii.) As we have heard that if geese fly, or flutter, 

 down hill it denotes rain, so, if they do so uphill, it 

 foretells fine weather. 



(iii.) The adage is common to most counties, I think, 

 that 



"If it rains before seven 

 It will be fine before eleven." 



(iv.) The common, or scarlet, pimpernel (anagallis 

 arvensis) called in Dorset " the poor man's weather- 

 glass," from its delicate sense of perceiving the 

 approach of rain, when it closes its flowers is 

 often apostrophized by children in their games in 

 the following lines : 



" Pimpernel, pimpernel, tell me true, 

 Whether the weather be fine or no. 

 No heart can think, no tongue can tell 

 The virtues of the pimpernel." 



(v.) The ash, in conjunction with the oak, is a very 

 favourite test, according as one or the other is the 

 first to put forth its leaves, as to what kind of 

 weather may be expected during the ensuing season. 



" If the ash is before the oak, 



Then there'll be a very great smoke ; 



If the oak is before the ash, 



Then there'll be a very great splash." 



But, as I have said in a former paper, in this Club's 

 Proceedings in 1899, dealing with superstitions 

 applicable to the ash tree, the variants of this 

 weather forecast are many. Some that I have 

 heard, even in this county, are exactly the opposite 

 to what I have given above, as in the following lines : 



" If the ash is before the oak, 

 Then there'll be a very great soak ; 

 If the oak is before the ash, 

 Then there'll be a very small splash." 



