12 

 ON THE VARIATIONS OF THE PRIMULA, 



By FLAVELL EDMUNDS, Esq., Hon. Member of the "Woolhope Katuralists' 

 Field Club, 



The common species or varieties of the Primulie— the "rathe primrose," 

 the "yellow cowslip," and the "oxlip"— have long been favourites with all 

 classes of observers. In the middle ages, as now, the poet's eye was caught by 

 their beauty and their abundance, and he ever loved to embalm them in his song, 

 the accuracy of his descriptions often showing a closeness of observation which 

 cannot be surpassed. Chaucer sings of the " prime-rose " and " the sweet 

 cowes-lippe "; Gawain Douglas mentions, among the delights of a morning in 



May, the 



Fresh primrose and the puipoure violet ; 



while in Shakspere the allusions to the primrose and the cowslip are almost as 



numerous as the flowers themselves are in nature at this season of the year. In 



the Winter's Tale (act iv. scene 3) he compares maidens who die young to 



Pale primroses that die unmarried 



Ere they can behold bright Phcebus in his strength ; 



In 2 Henry VI. (iii. 2) he describes people who "look pale as primrose with 



blood-drinking sighs " — an evidence that the varieties of colour to which I shall 



afterwards refer had not escaped Shakspere's eye. In Cymbeline (iv. 2) the 



fair Fidele is promised. 



Thou shall not lack the flower that's like thy face, 

 Pale primrose. 



And when we read (in "Macbeth") of "the primrose way," or "the primrose 



path of dalliance," we have at once brought up before the mind the wood path 



"embroidered" with primroses and violets, along which youths and maidens 



are still as fond of straying as they were in Shakspere's days. 



Shakspere's only reference to the Oxlip is in that exquisite passage (in the 



"Midsummei Night's Dream") where Oberon is describing the couch of his queen 



Titania : 



I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows, 

 Where oxlips and the noddiiag violet grows. 



We must of course take Shakspere's word that he found these plants all growing 

 together ; but nowadays I suspect there would be some trouble to meet with a 

 similar case. Violets and wild thyme may readily be found on the sunny bank, 

 as at Breinton, for instance, but the Oxlip prefers the shelter of a wood. 



The references in our great bard's works to the Cowslip are numerous, 

 and indicate a closer and more accurate knowledge than he possessed of the 

 Oxlip. He finds for his delicate Ariel ("Tempest," v. 2) as delicate a 

 chamber : 



In the cowslip's bell I lie. 



The Fairy Queen is said to have these sweet flowers in especial favour (Mid. 



