* * * * * FLORAL DIRECTORY. Stalkless moss. _Phascum muticum._ ~January 25.~ Holiday at the Public Office; except the Excise, Stamps, and Customs. CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. _Sts. Juventinus and Maximinus_, A. D. 363. _St. Projectus_, A. D. 674. _St. Poppo_, A. D. 1048. _St. Apollo_, A. D. 393. _St. Publius_, A. D. 369. _The Conversion of St. Paul._ This is a festival in the calendar of the church of England, as well as in that of the Romish church. ~St. Paul’s Day.~ On this day prognostications of the months were drawn for the whole year. If fair and clear, there was to be plenty; if cloudy or misty, much cattle would die; if rain or snow fell then it presaged a dearth; and if windy, there would be wars: If Saint Paul’s Day be fair and clear. It does betide a happy year; But if it chance to snow or rain, Then will be dear all kinds of grain; If clouds or mists do dark the skie, Great store of birds and beasts shall die; And if the winds do fly aloft, Then wars shall vex the kingdome oft. _Willsford’s Nature’s Secrets._ These prognostications are Englished from an ancient calendar: they have likewise been translated by Gay, who enjoins, Let no such vulgar tales debase thy mind, Nor Paul nor Swithin rule the clouds and wind. The latter lines are allusive to the popular superstitions, regarding these days, which were before remarked by bishop Hall, who observes of a person under such influences, that “St. Paule’s day, and St. Swithine’s, with the twelve, are his oracles, which he dares believe against the almanacke.” It will be recollected that “the twelve” are twelve days of Christmastide, mentioned on a preceding day as believed by the ignorant to denote the weather throughout the year. Concerning this day, Bourne says. “How it came to have this particular knack of foretelling the good or ill fortune of the following year is no easy matter to find out. The monks, who were undoubtedly the first who made this wonderful observation, have taken care it should be handed down to posterity; but why, or for what reason, they have taken care to conceal. St. Paul did indeed labour more abundantly than all the apostles; but never that I heard in the science of astrology: and why this day should therefore be a standing almanac to the world, rather than the day of any other saint, will be pretty hard to find out.” In an ancient Romish calendar, much used by Brand, the vigil of St. Paul is called “Dies Ægyptiacus;” and he confesses his ignorance of any reason for calling it “an Egyptian-day.” Mr. Fosbroke explains, from a passage in Ducange, that it was so called because there were two unlucky days in every month, and St. Paul’s vigil was one of the two in January. Dr. Forster notes, that the festival of the conversion of St. Paul has always been reckoned ominous of the future weather of the year, in various countries remote from each other.