﻿226 Canadian Record of Science. 



for various diseases. It is, however, in ill-repute in 

 Clarenceville. Few will allow even a sprig of it in their 

 houses, believing that its tenacity of life is due to a power 

 of feeding upon the very existence of human beings, and 

 that it keeps fresh and green at their expense. 



Although the old superstitions have lost their power, 

 some have a lingering belief in the possibility of finding 

 water by means of a witch-hazel twicr, and in the 

 protection from lightning, which is afforded by a beech- 

 tree, and many more own to a decidedly uncomfortable 

 feeling if an apple-tree blossom in the fall. This is due to 

 a belief common in Xew^ England and embodied in an 

 old Xorthamptonshire proverb — 



" A bloom upon the apple-tree, when the apples are ripe, 

 Is a sure termination to somebody's life." 



' The idea of any unseasonable e^'ent or dream being 

 a token of ill-luck is voiced in a saying " to dream of 

 fruit out of season is to sorrow out of reason." This is a 

 wrongly quoted and misapplied English rhyme,^ which is 

 an example of the many changes which plant-lore under- 

 goes in its travels from one country to another. A 

 curious instance of differences in word and thought is 

 furnished by a Clarenceville and Xew England dictum. 

 " An apple in the morning is golden, at noon it is silver, 

 but at night it is lead." AVhile a Devonshire rhyme says : 



" Eat an apple going to bed, 



Make the doctor beg his bread.'"- 



Little can be added to the plant names, weather-lore, 

 love-charms, and children's games, mentioned by the 

 writer in a former paper.^ The compass plants of diffei»ent 

 countries vary greatly, and a bit of local woodcraft is the 

 belief that the topmost branch of a pine or hemlock 

 always points to the north. The weather-wise say that 

 " the turning up of leaves so as to show the lighter under 

 side is a sure sign of rain." This appearance, which is 



1. 2, " The Folk-Ix)re of Plants" by Dyer. 

 3 Canadian Record of Science, April, 1S93. 



