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…you, if you do not know her. But he will call her “Common Dandelion”, and I do not know of any flower that has so many things for us children to remember.
If you are learning French, you will see how it got the name “Dandelion”; it used to be written dent de lion; that is, “tooth of a lion”; because its leaves are edged with sharp teeth, like a lion’s jaw.
Its golden-yellow flower is said to open when the Swallows arrive from the south, that is, in April; and though it blooms chiefly in springtime it keeps on blooming till long after the Swallows fly away. It certainly thrives as long as the sun shines on it, and fades when the cold dark season comes. But I have seen it out in November; that is, the Dandelion blooms for fully nine months. I do not know of any other flower that does; most of them are done in one month.
When the yellow flower is over, its place is taken by a beautiful globe of soft, white plumes; this is why the story says its golden hair turns white with age. The children believe that this woolly head will tell you the time of day. You hold it up, then pretend you are Father Time blowing her hair away, blow a sharp puff with your breath, then another and another, till the plumes are blown away. If it takes four blows, they say it means four o’clock; but it is not a very true clock.
Some children make a wish, then blow once and say, “this year”; the second time, “next year”; the third time, “some time”; the fourth time, “never”. Then begin all over, and keep on as long as any plumes are left, to tell when the wish is coming true.
Now pull the head off the stalk. You will find it leaves a long, open tube that sounds like a trumpet when you blow through it from the small end. If you force your finger into the big end, and keep pushing, you split the tube into two or three pieces; put these in your mouth and they will curl ..text pokračuje
