d ear, for that betokened a lover,
But at the crooked laughed, and called it a thief in the
corn-field:
Even the blood-red ear to Evangeline brought not her
lover."

Charms of this kind are common, and vary in different localities, being
found extensively on the Continent, where perhaps even greater
importance is attached to them than in our own country. Thus, a popular
French one--which many of our young people also practise--is for lovers
to test the sincerity of their affections by taking a daisy and plucking
its leaflets off one by one, saying, "Does he love me?--a
little--much--passionately--not at all!" the phrase which falls to the
last leaflet forming the answer to the inquiry:

"La blanche et simple Paquerette,
Que ton coeur consult surtout,
Dit, Ton amant, tendre fillette,
T'aime, un peu, beaucoup, point du tout."

Perhaps Brown alludes to the same species of divination when he writes
of:

"The gentle daisy with her silver crown,
Worn in the breast of many a shepherd lass."

In England the marigold, which is carefully excluded from the flowers
with which German maidens tell their fortunes as unfavourable to love,
is often used for divination, and in Germany the star-flower and
dandelion.

Among some of the ordinary flowers in use for love-divination may be
mentioned the poppy, with its "prophetic leaf," and the old-fashioned
"bachelor's buttons," which was credited with possessing some magical
effect upon the fortunes of lovers. Hence its blossoms were carried in
the pocket, success in love being indicated in proportion as they lost
or retained their freshness. Browne alludes to the primrose, which
"maidens as a true-love in their bosoms place;" and in the North of
England the kemps or spikes of the ribwort plantain are used as
love-charms. The mode of procedure as practised in Northamptonshire is
thus picturesquely given by Clare in his "Shepherd's Calendar:":

"Or trying simple charms and spells,
Which rural superstition tells,
They pull the little blossom threads
From out the knotweed's button heads,
And put the husk, with many a smile,
In their white bosom for a while;

Then, if they guess aright the swain
Their love's sweet fancies try to gain,
'Tis said that ere it lies an hour,
'Twill blossom with a second flower,
And from the bosom's handkerchief
Bloom as it ne'er had lost a leaf."

Then there are the downy thistle-heads, which the