WEATJIEJl SIGNS. 71 



accordingly in the circular halo, in the lunar rainbow 

 and the dripping crescent, man may behold on a still, 

 calm night, the omens of an approaching tempest. 



The vegetable world shows intimate relations to all 

 these meteoric phenomena; and never does the hair 

 cloud in the upper heavens reveal the commencement 

 of a change, but the flower of the chickweed by half 

 closing its sensitive cup, responds to the same predic- 

 tion. When the clouds have gathered thickly around 

 this delicate nucleus, and the blue sky is hidden by a 

 congregated multitude' of cumuli, until the heavens are 

 dappled all over with their dark masses — then this 

 little flower folds together its white petals and its green 

 calyx, as if to preserve the delicate stamens that are 

 arranged like so many little nestlings in its minute 

 flower cups, from all impending change. Every little 

 flower droops its head and prepares to meet the storm, 

 and as the air becomes still more heavily loaded with 

 moisture, the clover and the wood-sorrel contract their 

 tri-foliate leaves ; and upon the barren hills, the gray 

 lichens, whose brittle branches so generally crumble be- 

 neath our tread, have become firm and elastic. Thus 

 do all the phenomena of the earth and the heavens cor- 

 respond in their significations ; and the sea-gulls that 

 leave the vicinity of the ocean and settle down restlessly 

 near some inland harbor, bring us assurance that above 

 their own home on the waters, the elements are prepar- 

 ing for strife. 



The clouds have at length accumulated so as to 

 darken all the sky ; the cormorant has forsaken the sea ; 

 and the plover and the curlew seem restless and agitated 

 in their usual haunts upon the shore. The pimpernel 

 has closed its scarlet flowers, and the purple sandwort 

 that clusters around our door steps in dry places, has 



