When children find a flower of the celandine or buttercup, they pluck it, hold it under the smooth, fair chin of their comrades, to see "if they like butter." The liking is proportional to the brightness of the yellow reflection on the skin.
[...]
Children will not gather or smell at the beautiful yellow flower of the dandelion, "piss-a-bed" or "pissimire" they call it, because they believe unpleasant results, as recorded in the former name, will ensue. The leaves of the plant grow close to the ground, but the flower stalk grows erect, though hollow and easily broken. As a conceited person walks with head erect, it is said "He walks as brant (upright) as a pissimire."
Children, however, delight to pluck the flower stalks, when the flu fly ball of downy seeds is quite ripe. They call them "clocks," and puff at them, scattering the winged seeds broadcast. The number of puffs required to dislodge the whole, denotes the time of day, and the little rogues regulate the length and strength of the puffs, on purpose to bring matters right, believing it best to prophesy only when you know.
" Dandelion, with globe of down,
The school-boy's clock in every town,
Which the truant puffs amain,
To conjure lost hours back again."
[In John Nicholson (1890)
Folk Lore of East Yorkshire (
link)
