13 

 N. Dream, u. 1), and Shakspere'3 reference shows that the orange spots in the 



twrolla had caught his eye : 



The cowslips tall her pensioners be : 

 In their gold coats spots you see. 

 These be rubles, fairy favours. 

 In those freckles live their savours. 



And Ariel can find no further adornment possible save the dewdrop, which 



he hangs as "a pearl, in every cowsUp's ear." In the speech of Burgundy, 



contrasting the effects of peace and war (King Henry V. v. 2), the "freckled 



cowsUp" is mentioned along with bumet and sweet clover, as forming the 



pasturage of the "even mead." 



Milton records as the choicest gifts which "the flowery May" throws 



from "her green lap," 



The yellow cowsUp and the pale primrose. 



In our own days, Wordsworth has used the primrose as the main element in 

 his famous picture of the dull nnpoetical practical man : 



The primrose by the river's brim 



A yellow primrose is to him. 

 And it is nothing uiore. 



To every poetical mind, the primrose is, no doubt, a great deal « more" than a 

 mere flower; and we all gladly listen to the great truths of which it and other 

 flowers are the symbols and the teachers, yet even to him to whom the primrose 

 is "nothing more" than a flower, it needs not to be an uninterestmg thmg. 

 But for its commonness, the glorious profusion with which it is poured forth on 

 every sunny hedge-bank, by every tiny stream, in every by-path of our woods, 

 helping with the violet to fill the sunny glades with a flood of deUcate fragrance, 

 it would be accounted one of the most interesting as it is one of the earliest of 

 our many wildflowers. In its structure, it is as remarkable as an example of 

 the wonderful adaptation of organs to their destined purpose, as any flower 

 which the Spring or the Summer yields; and even the learned, accustomed 

 to seek for rare things, may find much worthy of notice in this, one of the 



commonest. 



The names of the three kinds of Primula which are best known are Saxon, 

 thus showing that the plants, if ever introduced, were brought into England 

 earUer than the Norman Conquest. The Primrose was anciently the pnme 

 (or early) rose, the name of the queen of flowers being applied loosely to almost 

 any beautiful flower. The Cowslips, anciently Cowes' lippes, were evidently so 

 caUed on account of their pure fragrance. The " Giant Cowslip " seems to have 

 been called Ox lip in order to indicate its superiority in size to the Cowshp, 

 much in the spirit in which the ancient Greeks prefixed the word for a buU to 

 other words in order to indicate superior bulk, and we modern English speak 

 of the boll-frog or the bull-rush. . , i.v • 



In advancing to a consideration of the various kinds of Primula, their 

 fragrance is the first pecuUarity which strikes us. Whether Shakspere be 

 right in supposing that "the savour" of the Cowslip lives in its freckles, 



