88 COLIN CLOUT'S CALENDAR. 







newspaper on the floor around it when it ripens. Chil- 

 dren well know this habit of bittercress, and will press 

 their lingers on the tip of the dry capsules to make 

 them explode ; if they are fully ripe they go off at once 

 with a little bang. Garden balsams do much the same 

 thing a little later in the season. Indeed, there is no 

 plant which does not possess some special plan or other 

 to secure fresh fields and pastures new from time to 

 time ; and to trace these out is another of the pleasures 

 that we countrymen derive from following the epochs of 

 our rustic calendar. Every day brings its manifold 

 changes, and almost all go unsung carent quid vate 

 sacro. The little that one man can put on record is but 

 a tithe or a hundredth part of the infinite variety they 

 display. 



