Among further items of weather-lore associated with May, we are told how
he that "sows oats in May gets little that way," and "He who mows in May
will have neither fruit nor hay." Calm weather in June "sets corn in
tune;" and a Suffolk adage says:--

"Cut your thistles before St. John,
You will have two instead of one."

But "Midsummer rain spoils hay and grain," whereas it is commonly said
that,

"A leafy May, and a warm June,
Bring on the harvest very soon."

Again, boisterous wet weather during the month of July is to be
deprecated, for, as the old adage runs:--

"No tempest, good July,
Lest the corn look surly."

Flowers of this kind are very numerous, and under a variety of forms
prevail largely in our own and other countries, an interesting
collection of which have been collected by Mr. Swainson in his
interesting little volume on "Weather Folk-lore," in which he has given
the parallels in foreign countries. It must be remembered, however, that
a great number of these plant-sayings originated very many years
ago--long before the alteration in the style of the calendar--which in
numerous instances will account for their apparent contradictory
character. In noticing, too, these proverbs, account must be taken of
the variation of climate in different countries, for what applies to one