PEIMROSE TEIBE 71 



Our sulphur-coloured Primrose is found in most European countries, 

 growing in woods, copses, and partially-shaded banks, thriving most luxuri- 

 antly on clay soils, but never occurring, like the Cowslip, in the midst of the 

 meadow. Varieties, slightly tinted with red, often grow in our woods, but 



"The polj'anthus of uiiniimber'd dyes " 



has been changed by culture to most of the various tints. 



2. Common Oxlip, or Jacquin's Oxlip {P. eldfior). — Leaves egg- 

 shaped, contracted below, wrinkled, slightly toothed; stalks umbellate, 

 many -flowered ; calyx tubular, teeth lanceolate and acute ; limb of corolla 

 concave, segments oblong, heart-shaped ; tube not contracted at the mouth, 

 and without scales or folds ; perennial. The Oxlip is not a genei'ally-dis- 

 tributed flower, though varieties between the Primrose and Cowslip are often 

 very similar, the chief diflerence in structure being that these varieties have 

 more or less a slightly inflated calyx, and a somewhat contracted mouth, and 

 folds and plaits in the throat. As this distinct species is rare, except in woods 

 and meadows in the eastern counties of England, the common variety of the 

 Primrose, the Primrose Oxlip, is evidently the flower mentioned by our poets, 

 and this is not infrequent. Many of us may say with Shakspeare — 



' ' I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows, 

 Where Oxlip and the nodding violet gi'ows." 



The Oxlip is of the same colour as the Primrose, its calyx, however, being 

 tubular, and not bell-shaped. 



3. Common Cowslip (P. veris). — ^Leaves egg-shaped, contracted below 

 the middle, crenate, toothed, and wrinkled ; flowers in umbels, drooping ; 

 calyx tubular, and bell-shaped, teeth short ; limb of the corolla concave ; 

 tube with a circle of scale-like folds at the slightly contracted mouth ; peren- 

 nial. Eare as the Cowslip is in the meads of Scotland, it is plentiful enough 

 in the clayey pastures of England, affording to many a merry group of 

 children a sweet wild nosegay, and an innocent source of pastime. Some- 

 times their hats are adorned with the flowers, sometimes these are by laborious 

 ingenuity made up into cowslip-balls, or large numbers of the blossoms are 

 gathered by poor women and children, and carried into towns for sale. 



In some places the Cowslip is commonly called Paigle ; we have heard it 

 so called in Cambridgeshire, but never in Kent, but it is a very old English . 

 name of the flower, as is that of Petty Mullein. English herbalists commonly 

 term it Palsy-wort ; and Herhe a paralysie is a very ancient French name for 

 the Cowslip ; while the medical writers of old times, who made much use of 

 these flowers, called them Arthriticce and Herbce Paralysis. In France the 

 flower is now called Primerole, or it shares with others the familiar name of 

 Fleiir de Coucou. Our word Cowslip is of very old use, and is the Saxon 

 Cuslippe, having probalily a reference to the soft texture of the corolla, or to 

 the odour, which might seem similar to that of the breath of cows. The 

 blossom is usually of rich yellow, with five crimson spots round the mouth of 

 the tube, and appears in April and May. 



A decoction of the flowers was said by old medical writers not only to 

 cure tremblings, but Avas believed to be generally efficacious in strengthening 

 the brain and nerves, and the leaves were considered a useful application to 



