AMONG THE WILD FLOWERS. 23 
worth has a pretty ode to this flower, in which 
he well describes its habit :— 
“Blithe of heart, from week to week 
Thou dost play at hide and seek ; 
While the patient primrose sits 
Like a beggar in the cold, 
Thou, a flower of wiser wits, 
Slipp’st into thy sheltering hold ; 
Bright as any of the train 
When ye all are out again.” 
This contrast with the habit of the Primrose, 
Primula Vulgaris, is admirable. But this first 
Rose of the Spring, as the name Primrose 
seems to designate it, suffers nought from its 
hardihood, braving all weather, so long as it 
can nestle amid the leaves the wintry storm has 
spread. There are in our British Flora five 
species of Primula, of which P. Veris, the 
Cowslip, is the most frequent after the Common 
Primrose. They give name to the Nat. Ord. 
PRIMULACEZ; and as each flower contains 
within its tube a ring of five stamens, the Linn. 
Class is Pentandria. 
To this class also belong all.the violets, 
Nat. Ord., VioLace&#. We have nine species 
of Viola, of which one is the sweet-scented 
V. odorata; the scentless specimen, with paler 
