362 THE RIVER-SIDE NATURALIST. 



Shakespeare alludes to this in "A Midsummer Night's 

 Dream " (Act ii. sc. i) : 



" The cowslips tall her pensioners be : 

 In their gold coats spots you see ; 

 Those be rubies, fairy favours, 

 In those freckles live their savours." 



Milton in " Lycidas " notices the drooping flowers of the 

 cowslip : 



" With cowslips wan, that hang the pensive head." 



Montgomery is particularly happy in his allusion to this 

 plant : 



" Now in my walk with sweet surprise 

 I see the first spring cowslip rise, 



The plant whose pensile flowers 

 Bend to the earth their beauteous eyes 

 In sunshine as in showers." 



Cowslip tea and cowslip wine were formerly much used 

 by country-folks. The latter has a peculiar musk-like 

 flavour, and is supposed to favour sleep : 



" Where thick thy primrose blossoms play, 

 Lively and innocent as they, 



O'er coppice, lawns, and dells, 

 In bands the village children stray 



To pluck thy honied bells, 

 Whose simple sweets, with curious skill, 

 The frugal cottage dames distil, 



Nor envy France the vine, 

 While many a festal cup they fill 



Of Britain's homely wine." 



Mixed with the primrose in coppice or on the banks, 

 the pale-blue scentless VIOLET (Viola hirtd) Fig. in " E. 

 B. f " 172 or HAIRY VIOLET, is often found, particularly on 

 chalky soils. Although closely allied, it is distinguished 

 from the SWEET VIOLET (Viola odorata} by its pale colour; 

 by the short, not creeping shoots ; by the greater hairiness 

 of the plant ; and by the situation of the little bracteas of 

 the scape (stalk), which are below, while in V. odorata 

 they are above the middle. The sweet violet is occasionally 

 met with ; its flowers are more of a deep purple-blue, 



