OF BRITISH PLANTS. 189 



author of the Ortus Sanitatis, Brunschwygk, Brunsfels, 

 Fuchs, Lonicerus, and their cotemporaries, with the single 

 exception of Ruellius, assign the name to the daisy only. 

 Primula veris, L. acaulis. 



SCOTCH-, from its growth upon the mountains of 

 Scotland, Primula farinosa, L. 



PRIMROSE PEERLESS, a name now given to a narcissus, 

 apparently transferred to it from a lady, the favourite of 

 Thomas a Becket, of whom it is related by Bale, that 

 " Holye Thomas would sumtyme for his pleasure make 

 a journey of pylgrymage to the prymerose peerlesse of 

 Stafforde." Hampson, v. i. p. 121. The term primerose 

 was not unfrequently applied to ladies in the middle ages. 

 See Chaucer, C. T. 1. 3268. Narcissus biflorus, Curt. 



PRINCE'S FEATHER, from its resemblance to that of the 

 Prince of Wales, Amarantus hypochondriacus, L. 



PRIVET, in Tusser called PRIVY, altered from Prymet, 

 the primrose, through a confusion between this flower and 

 the shrub, from the application to both of them by medie- 

 val writers of the Latin Liyustrum. See above PRIM- 

 PRINT. Ligustrum vulgare, L. 



,, BARREN-, from its want of the conspicuous white 

 flowers of the real privet, to which it certainly bears no 

 other resemblance than in being an evergreen, 



Rhamnus Alaternus, L. 



PROCESSION FLOWER, see ROGATION FLOWER. 



PRUNE, L. prunea, adj. of prunus, Gr. Trpovvrj, 



P. communis, Huds. var. domestica, L. 



PUCKFISTS, fromjist, G. feist, crepitus, and Puck, O.N. 

 puki, who, in Pierce Plowman and other old works, seems 

 to have been the same as Satan, but in later tales the king 

 of the fairies, and given to coarse practical jokes. See 

 PIXIE STOOLS. Lycoperdon, L. 



PUDDING-GRASS, pennyroyal, from its being used to make 



