PKIMULACE^.. 133 



of blundering. Prltucrole is an abbreviation of Frcncli^mneyecoZe, Italian jsmnaveroZa, 

 dim. o? prima fcm, from Jior di primn vrni, the first spring flower. Primerole, as an 

 outlandish, unintelligible word, was soon familiarised into 'pvime rolles, and this into 

 primiroso. This is explained in popular works as meaning the first rose of the spring, 

 a name that never would have been given to a plant that in form and colour is so 

 unlike a rose. But the rightful claimant of it, strange to say, is the daisy, which in 

 the south of Europe is a common and conspicuous flower in early spring, while the 

 Primi'ose is an extremely rare one, and it is the daisy that bears the name in all the 

 old books." The roots of the Primrose are emetic, and Gerarde reports that a drachm 

 and a half in the powdered state act strongly and safely. A wine resembling cowslip 

 wine is also made from Primroses ; and wc have lately seen a receipt for making a 

 Primrose pudding. Pretty flower as it is, all animals reject it as food, excepting the 

 pig. The common Primrose is peculiarly the flower of pleasant associations — not 

 the varieties, single and double, which are cultivated in the gardens, or the lilac 

 Primrose, to which we give the name but in courtesy — it is the sulphur-coloured 

 Primrose of our youth which speaks to us of the early daj's of spring, and the first 

 i-amble in the meadows or by the hedge-side. It is peculiarly the flower of an 

 English home, and we remember seeing, in one of our picture exhibitions, an attractive 

 painting of the arrival of a growing plant of bright Primroses on the shores of 

 Australia. The eager gaze of those who loved the flower which spoke to them of 

 home and childhood, and the anxiety to look upon it, are well depicted. We believe 

 it to be a fact that this plant was exhibited for some time in the city where it 

 arrived, at a fixed charge, to admiring thousands. We all know and love some retired 

 spot 



" Where the hardy Primrose peeps 

 From the dai'k dell's entangled steeps." 



The Isle of Wight, and indeed the whole of the south of England, abounds with 

 Primrose's in the early part of the year, and we have lately been interested by tracing 

 their relation to the cowslips in form, and the tendency there evidently is for one 

 variety to run into the other. We have seen Primroses becoming small, and growing 

 two or three on one stalk, on a plant beai'ing single stalked Primroses, and cowslip 

 flowers on single short stalks, amidst the tiny clusters of cups generally found on a 

 cowslip stalk. 



SPECIES II.— PRIMULA OFFICINALIS. Linn.Jacq. 



Platk MCXXX. 



lidcli. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XVII. Tab. MXC. Fig. 2. 

 Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 444. 

 P. veris, officinalis, Liiiti. Spec. Plant, p. 104. 

 P. veris, var. h, Benth. Handbk. Brit. Fl. ed. ii. p. 302. 



P. veris, Hiids. Sm. Engl. Bot. No. 5. Bab. Man. Brit. Bot. ed. v. p. 277. Hook. & 

 Am. Brit. Fl. ed. viii. p. 34-5. 



Leaves ovate-oval or ovate-obovate, abruptly contracted at the base 

 into ■winged petioles, rounded at the apex or subobtuse, irregularly 

 erose denticulate, rugose. Umbel raised on a scape ; pedicels usually 

 shorter than the calyx, more or less drooping. Calyx 5-si(led- 



