A NATURAL BAROMETER.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 31 August 1929, Page 17

A NATURAL BAROMETER.

Do you know that there are flowers that can tell what the weather will be like? asks a writer in an exchange. Most of you who have a garden know the “i/oor man’s barometer. ” This is the flower of the pimpernel. It is called the “poor man’s barometer” (because when rain is coming it closes its petals. But this is not the only plant which will tell you what the weather is going to be like. If you watch the convolvulus- you will see that it does just the same thing. But the ordinary dandelion is different from the rest of the garden folk. He doesn’t like too much sunshine, and so 1 if you see his petals close up quite early in the morning you. may be sure that the day is going to be fine. Just like a shopkeeper, the lettuce flower opens and elo'ses at regular hours. But if storms are at all likely he takes- his shutters down later in the morning and goes early to bed. When the day is going to be really fine, then he is up bright and early, and stays up until quite late at night.