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particularly by the French, as a salad and it yields to the 

 country children much amusement, in holding up its balls of 

 feathery, winged seeds, blowing them before the wind, and then 

 seeing if one seed remains to be their own true love. Many 

 other funny little stories are told about this plant, which in 

 some parts of the country is called by children, the Fortune 

 Teller. Our friend Howitt speaks thus 



" Dandelion, with globe of down. 

 The school boy's clock in every town, 

 Which the truant puffs amain 

 To conjure lost hours back again." 



And Mrs. Strickland has not forgotten to draw a moral even 

 from so simple a plant. She speaks of the wind which 



" Whirls the ' blow-balls' new-fledged pride, 



In many rings on high. 

 Whose downy pinions once unfurled, 

 Must onward fly. 



" Each is commissioned, could we trace 



The voyage to each decreed, 

 To convoy to some distant place 

 A pilgrim seed. 



" His wisdom thus we dimly see, 



Who through creation's chain, 

 Hath formed all things in harmony. 

 And nought in vain." 



HAWKWEED. HIERACIUM. 

 COMMON MOUSE-EAR HAWKWEED. Hieracium pilosella. 



Plate 12, fig. 8. 

 Stalks with one flower only, and without leaves. 



On dry, gravelly places, creeping along the ground, flowering 

 in the Summer and Autumn. Leaves ovate, without teeth or 

 notches, hairy at top, downy underneath. Flowers of a pale 

 yellow, one on each stalk, and two or three inches above the 

 ground. Stems creeping, by which it is always known. Ah 

 the species open their flowers in the morning, and close them 

 at night. The present wakes at eight in the morning, and go 

 to sleep at two in the afternoon. 



" See Hieracium's various tribes. 



Of plumy seed and radiant flowers. 

 Tlie course of time their bloom describe. 

 And wake or sleep appointed hours. 1 ' C. Smith. 



