reject the timber of trees fallen in the ful-moone, as being soft and
tender, subject also to the worme and putrifaction, and that quickly,
by reason of excessive moisture; husbandmen, likewise, make haste
to gather up their wheat and other grain from the threshing-floore, in
the wane of the moone, and toward the end of the month, that being
hardened thus with drinesse, the heape in the garner may keepe the
better from being fustie, and continue the longer; whereas corne
which is inned and laied up at the full of the moone, by reason of
the softnesse and over-much moisture, of all other, doth most cracke
and burst. It is commonly said also, that if a leaven be laied in the
ful-moone, the paste will rise and take leaven better." [329] Still in
Cornwall the people gather all their medicinal plants when the moon
is of a certain age; which practice is very probably a relic of
druidical superstition. "In some parts it is a prevalent belief that the
growth of mushrooms is influenced by the changes of the moon, and
in Essex the subjoined rule is often scrupulously adhered to:--

"When the moon is at the full,
Mushrooms you may freely pull
But when the moon is on the wane,
Wait ere you think to pluck again.'" [330]

Henderson says, "I may, perhaps, mention here, that apples are said
to 'shrump up' in Devonshire if picked when the moon is waning."
[331] A writer of miscellaneous literature tells us that "it has been
demonstrated that moonlight has the power, _per se_, of awakening
the sensitive plant, and consequently that it possesses an influence
of some kind on vegetation. It is true that the influence is very
feeble, compared with that of the sun; but the action is established,
and the question remains, what is the practical value of the fact? 'It
will immediately,' says Professor Lindley, 'occur to the reader that
possibly the screens which are drawn down over hothouses at
night, to prevent loss of heat by radiation, may produce some
unappreciated injury by cutting off the rays of the moon, which
nature intended to fall upon plants as much as the rays of the sun."
[332] The same author says elsewhere, "Columella, Cato, Vitruvius,
and Pliny, all had their notions of the advantages of cutting timber at
certain ages of the moon; a piece of mummery which is still
preserved in the royal ordonnances of France to the conservators of
the forests, who are directed to fell oaks only 'in the wane of the
moon' an