5 4 COLIN CLOUT'S CALENDAR. 



tradict theory the oak oftenest leads the way. Hence, 

 considering the nature of our climate, the proverb usually 

 turns out wrong ; which, of course, makes no difference 

 at all in the faith reposed in it year after year by some 

 thirty millions of people in this kingdom. Instantia 

 contradictoria non movet. Once let a saw take deep root 

 in the rural mind, and no experience will ever oust it. 

 We have another local saying hereabouts, that ' Godshill 

 plain Is a sign of rain.' Now, Godshill stands on the 

 very verge of the horizon, and is only visible in very 

 clear set-fair summer weather ; but week after week in 

 fine summers ever)' inhabitant of the village goes to bed 

 nightly muttering to himself that it will rain to-morrow 

 because Godshill is seen so distinctly this evening. 



The yearly rejuvenescence of the trees in the fields 

 around us, though habit has somewhat dulled our 

 appreciation of its significance, is yet a very beautiful 

 and a very suggestive phenomenon. Strictly speaking, 

 according to the view adopted by our most philosophical 

 biologists, the leaf, not the plant, is the real individual 

 of the vegetable world : and the tree as a whole is in 

 fact a great united colony of such separate individuals. 

 One may compare it to a coral-branch covered by 

 thousands of little living polypes, or to a sponge made 

 up of myriads of tiny jelly-like beings. Each leaf 

 sprouts, lives, and dies independently, without its death 

 at all affecting the general life of the community to 

 which it belongs ; and the seed that the tree as a whole 

 sends forth to perpetuate its kind is not so much a new 

 individual as the germ of a whole new colony. It re- 

 sembles rather a swarm of bees going forth to found a 

 new hive than a mere single young individual cast upon 



