376 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 
not see the flowers of chickweed, sow-thistle, and 
shepherd’s-purse, the little pink-purple blossoms of 
the dead-nettle, and the dandelion’s disks of gold. 
But the superstitious soul had better leave them to 
the mercies of Jack Frost, for it is highly unlucky, 
according to an old saying, to pluck flowers out of 
season. 
Even the sight of these untimely blossoms is 
distressing to some superstitious souls. In the 
eastern townships of Canada, where Old World 
sentiments and sayings linger, many persons own 
to a decidedly uncomfortable feeling if an apple- 
tree blossoms in the fall. A like superstition pre- 
vails in New England, and probably the idea in 
both cases is traceable to Old England, where it 
has been embodied in the Northamptonshire jingle: 
A bloom upon the apple-tree when apples are ripe, 
Is a sure termination to somebody’s life.” 
But people have not always thus looked askance 
at belated blossoms. The ‘‘holy-thorns’’ of 
England won a_ great reputation for beneficent 
potency by putting on their adornment when all 
the woods were bare. Once upon a time the com- 
mon folk firmly believed in the magical and medical 
virtues of these trees, and legends were told to 
account for their winter blossoming. The wealthy 
