70 FLOWERS OF THE WOODS AND COPSES 
opened the door. The child entered a room covered with primroses 
where gold and jewels were deposited, and when they had been taken 
the primroses had to be put back or else the favoured person would be 
followed by a “black dog”. 
The Primrose is described as a flower which ‘“ maidens as a true- 
love in their bosoms place”. The Primrose was used in the bridal 
bouquet. It was the famous “key-flower” which revealed hidden 
recesses in mountains where treasure was concealed. It is necessary 
to give a full handful of primroses and violets as a gift, or the chickens 
and ducklings will be affected, according to ancient superstition. 
The Primrose has been used as an emetic. In Chaucer's time it 
was one of the components of the all-powerful “save”. With Water- 
Violet and the Avens it was supposed to be a remedy in liver com- 
plaints, for ‘‘schaking of hede and of handes”, and for a person ‘‘ who 
cannot speak well”. 
It has long been cultivated as a garden flower, and many varieties 
have been derived from it differing in colour and form. 
ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS :— 
199. Primula vulgaris, Huds.—Flowering stem a scape, leaves 
ovate, oblong, dentate, wrinkled, flowers yellow, calyx tubular, with 
subulate teeth, capsule ovate, calyx exceeding it by a half, corolla limb 
flat. 
Wood Loosestrife (Lysimachia nemorum, L.) 
This little woodland flower is local but widespread, and known 
throughout the Northern Temperate Zone in Europe, but not in 
Prussia, Greece, and Turkey. No early records are extant. The 
Wood Loosestrife grows in every part of Great Britain except Hunts, 
S. Lincs, and the Shetlands. In the Highlands it ascends to 2500 ft. 
Watson regards it as a frequent but not quite common plant, and 
possibly occurring everywhere except in Huntingdon, being local in 
Bedford and Cambridge. Thus it is not common in the more low- 
lying damp districts of the central plain. Generally it occurs in woods, 
loving a shady habitat, and under hedges in wooded districts. 
The stems of the Wood Loosestrife are usually lying on the ground, 
numerous, furrowed each side, reddish, rooting at intervals. The 
leaves are opposite, stalked, egg-shaped, acute, glossy, yellowish-green, 
with marked veins. The flowers are yellow, small, on flower-stalks in 
the axils, longer than the leaves, 1-flowered and slender. The calyx 
is deeply divided into 5 or 6 segments, which are narrow and awl-like, 
sub-triangular, and do not fall. The corolla, which is wheel-shaped, 
