COWSLIP 69 



The goat's beard, prompt his praise to hail, 

 With broad expanded disk, in veil, 

 Close mantling, wraps its yellow head, 

 And goes as peasants say to bed. 



It is used like Salsify, and has a long root like a parsnip, with a mild, 

 sweet flavour. It is dressed like Asparagus, grown like the carrot, 

 and cultivated in France and Germany, but seldom in Britain. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



185. Tragopogon pratense, L. Stem erect, branched, glaucous, 

 leaves clasping, erect, long, lanceolate, channelled, simple, alternate, 

 flowerheads yellow, involucre as long as or shorter than the flower, 

 florets ligulate, perfect, pappus feathery, anthers yellow. 



Cowslip (Primula veris, L.) 



The Cowslip ranges farther east than the Primrose in the N. 

 Temperate Zone, where it is found in Europe, Siberia, W. Asia, 

 N. Africa, but, like it, is unknown so far in early deposits. 



In Great Britain it is found in the Peninsula provinces, in the 

 Channel, Thames, Anglia, and Severn provinces, in S. Wales it does 

 not occur in Radnor or Cardigan, in N. Wales not in Montgomery 

 or Merioneth, but throughout the Trent and Mersey provinces, except 

 Mid Lancashire, and in the Humber, Tyne, Lakes provinces generally. 

 In the E. Lowlands it is general except in Wigtown, and in the 

 W. Lowlands except in Peebles and Selkirk, in the S. Highlands 

 except in Stirling, S. Perth, Elgin, Easterness, and in the W. High- 

 lands in Westerness, Main Argyle, Dumbarton, and in W. Sutherland, 

 and Caithness. In Northumberland it grows at 1600 ft. 



There is no more common plant in most lowland counties of Great 

 Britain in early spring than the Cowslip, which dots the meadows, 

 fields, and upland pastures with its yellow flowers as uniformly as the 

 Lady's Smock does the moister meadows and marshes. It also grows 

 under hedgerows in the shade, in copses, and woodlands, when it is 

 taller and finer in flower and foliage. 



The general habit of the Cowslip is like that of the Primrose, but 

 the scape bears more than one flower. It is a typical rosette plant. 



The radical leaves are heart-shaped to egg-shaped, narrowed at 

 the base, running down the stalk, wrinkled, with rounded teeth, shorter 

 than those of the Primrose, hairy beneath. 



The flowers are in umbels, funnel-shaped, drooping, yellow, with 

 orange dots. The calyx is bell -shaped with short egg-shaped teeth, 



