Then there is the time-honoured adage which says that:—
"He that would live for aye
Must eat sage in May."
And Aubrey has bequeathed us the following piece of advice:—
"Eat leeks in Lide, and ramsines in May,
And all the year after physicians may play."
There are many sayings of this kind still current among our country-folk, some of which no doubt contain good advice; and of the plaintain, which from time immemorial has been used as a vulnerary, it is said:—
"Plantain ribbed, that heals the reaper's wounds."
In Herefordshire there is a popular rhyme associated with the aul (Alnus glutinosus):—
"When the bud of the aul is as big as the trout's eye,
Then that fish is in season in the river Wye."
A Yorkshire name for the quaking grass (Briza media) is "trembling jockies," and according to a local proverb:—
"A trimmling jock i' t' house,
An' you weeant hev a mouse,"