PRIMROSE TRIBE 69 



Almost all our old poets refer to the Primrose. Spenser has some elegiac 

 verses, in which he says — 



"She is the rose, the glory of the day, 



And mine the Primrose in the lowly shade." 



And Shakspeare likened Fidele's face to the "jmle Primrose." The Prim- 

 rose is so common a wild flower, that all men know it. Well does it tell of 

 England's soil to her distant sons ; and Dr. Stephen Ward mentioned to the 

 Royal Institution, as an instance of the successful conveyance of plants in 

 glass cases, that a Primrose so transported had arrived in full bloom, and 

 that when it reached Australia the sensation excited by it as a reminiscence 

 of fatherland was so great, that it was necessary to protect it by a guard. 

 Mrs. Abdy has written some interesting verses on this touching incident : — 



"The strong and toiling man, intent on grasping worldly store, 

 AA'^ho from the hidden caves of earth wrests forth the precious ore, 

 Recalls with joy his childish glee when Primrose tufts he found, 

 And deem'd no richer treasures could be proffer'd by the ground. 



" The gentle girl, contending with a rough and chequer'd lot, 

 Thinks of the glens and coppices around her father's cot, 

 From whence the early Primroses she oft rejoiced to bring, 

 Greeting their blooming promise as a herald of the spring. ^ 



" All love upon the English flower to rest their wearied eyes, 

 Reading therein a history of dear and sever'd ties, 

 Communion with their absent friends in fancy the}' attain, 

 And go refresh'd and solaced on their busy course again. 



" A 'Primrose on the river's brim ' hath won the poet's lays, 

 But surely thou, sweet Primrose, hast a higlier claim to praise ; 

 Thou in the vaunted realms of gold hast cheer 'd an exile band. 

 And soothed their toil with pleasant thoughts of Home and Native Land !" 



Lovely as our native Primroses are, they are not equal in beauty to those 

 of the tribe which deck the mountains. This is pre-eminently an Alpine genus 

 of plants ; and far away on the heights of Switzerland and Spain, on Alps or 

 Pyrenees, the Primroses peep up to remind the traveller of the English 

 garden. Amid the cold blasts of some of these dreary regions, where ice and 

 snow thicken during the winter over impassable chasms and inaccessible 

 mountain peaks, the little Primrose is lying secure beneath the fleecy mantle, 

 and waiting for some gleam of sunshine to melt a small patch of snow, when 

 it will smile forth upon the loneliness. Not merely the sulphur-coloured, but 

 still more often Primroses of a white, yellow, violet, lilac, and sky-blue coloiu', 

 expand there ; and the purple auricula, with its white centre and powdery 

 cup, sheds its peculiar perfume. 



It is not on the lofty mountains of Europe only that the Primrose tribe 

 grow in great profusion and beauty. Sir Joseph Hooker, when in the 

 Himalayas, was often delighted with these flowers, which he saw growing 

 wiih the saxifrages, tufted wormwood, whitlow-grass, and others, close to the 

 snow, while grasses, and sedges, and green moss, were all around. In more 

 fertile spots the rhododendrons took the most prominent place on the scene, 

 clothing the mountain-slopes with a deep-green mantle, and glowing with 

 bells of different colours, every bush being laden with flowers. Primroses 

 came next, both in beauty and abundance, accompanied by Cowslips with 



