128 WILD FLOWEBS OP 



where these " crimson drops" are denominated 

 "rubies, fairies' favours." The drooping corolla of 

 the cowslip, its golden bells hanging from their very 

 pale green calyces, is a peculiar feature that the poets 

 have not forgotten to allude to ; CLARE calls them 



" Sowing odorers of the gale," 

 and HUEDIS, in his " Village Curate" pictures 



" The love-sick Cowslip, that the head Inclines 

 To hide a bleeding heart." 



The Cowslip varies much in the bright or pale tint 

 of its flowers, and very rarely red ones are found. 

 The name probably originated from the perfume of 

 the flowers having been thought to resemble the sweet 

 scent of the breath of cows. Its odour, though weak, 

 is very agreeable, and the wine made from the blos- 

 soms is of the sweetest and most harmless in exist- 

 ence scarcely, indeed, deserving to appear even in 

 the Index expurgatorius of a tee-totaller ! In some 

 districts the children of the peasantry sell the flowers, 

 divested of the ovaria, to some advantage to them- 

 selves to the manufacturers of British wines. 



Damp meadows at this time present a brilliant 

 appearance with the specious flowers of the Marsh 

 Marigold, or rather Ranunculus (Caltlia palustris), 

 whose expanded petals now make a fine show, being 

 near their height of beauty. A luxuriant plant in a 

 sunny place will often flower in March, and Mr. T. 

 FOESTEE remarks it as " in flower in the end of 

 March in the marshes about Lea Bridge, in Essex." 

 In the midland counties this fine plant of the marsh 

 and the brook often presents its splendid flowers in 

 full blow by the 10th of April, and by the middle of 

 the month it is in perfection, edging willowy copses 



