ioo THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN 



usually in Latin Primula veris. Primula pretenses 

 and Primula silvarum, because they shew by their 

 flowering the new Spring to be coming on, they 

 being, as it were, the first Embassadors thereof. 

 They have also divers other names, as Herba Paraly- 

 sis ', Arthritica, Herba Sancti Petri, Claues Sancti 

 Petri^ Verbasculum odoratum, Lunaria arthritica, 

 Phlomis, Alisma silvarum and Alismatis alterum 

 genus. Some have distinguished them by calling 

 the Cowslips Primula Veris Elatior, that is the 

 Taller Primrose, and the other Humilis, Low, or 

 Dwarf, Primrose. 



"Primroses and Cowslips are in a manner wholly 

 used in Cephalicall diseases to ease pains in the 

 head. They are profitable both for the Palsy and 

 pains of the joints, even as the Bears' Ears * are, 

 which hath caused the names of Arthritic a Paralysis 

 and Paralytica to be given them." 



Tusser in his "Husbandry" includes the prim- 

 rose among the seeds and herbs of the kitchen; and 

 Lyte says that "the cowslips, primroses and oxlips 

 are now used daily amongst other pot-herbs, but in 

 physic there is no great account made of them." 

 "The old name was Primerolles," Dr. Prior notes 

 in his quaint book on flowers. "Primerole as an 



1 Auriculas, 



