268 Notes and Illustrations. 
Chaucer writes it in one word primerole. (See also MS. Addit. 
Cline tou pa iner tres 
“He shal ben lyk the lytel bee 
That seketh the blosme on the tre, 
And souketh on the prumorole.” ) 
Primerole is an abbreviation of Fr. primeverole, It. primaverola, dimin. 
of prima vera, from fior di prima vera=the first spring flower. Prime- 
role, as an outlandish unintelligible word, was soon familiarized 
into prime roles, and this into primrose. ‘This is explained in popular 
works as meaning the first rose of the spring, a name that never 
could have been given to a plant that in form and colour is so 
unlike a rose. But the rightful claimant is, strange to say, the 
daisy, which in the South of Europe is a common and conspicuous 
flower in early spring, while the przmrose is an extremely rare one, 
and it is the dazsy that bears the name in all the old books. See 
Fuchs, Hist. Stirpium, 1542, p. 145, where there is an excellent: 
figure of it, titled premula veris; and the Ortus Sanitatis, ed. Augsb. 
1486, ch. cccxxxiii., where we have a very good woodcut of a daisy 
titled ‘‘masslieben, Premula veris, Latine.” Brunfelsius, Novum 
Herbarium, ed. 1531, speaking of the Herba paralysis, the cowslip, 
says, p. 1590, expressly, ‘‘Sye wiirt von etlichen Doctores Primula 
veris genaunt, das doch falsch ist wann Primula veris ist matsomen 
oder zeitlosen.” Brunschwygk (De Arte Distillandi, 1500, book ii. 
c. viii.) uses the same words. The Zeitlose is the daisy. Parkinson 
(Th. Bot. p. 531) assigns the name to both the daisy and the 
primrose. Matthioli (ed. Frankfort, 1586, p. 653) calls his Bellis 
Major ‘Primo fiore maggiore, seu Fiore dt prima vera, nonnullis 
Primula verts major,’ and figures the moon-daisy. His Bellis 
minor, which seems to be our daisy, he calls “‘ Primo fiore minore, 
Fior di primavera, Gallis Marguerites, Germanis MJasslieben.” At 
p- 883, he figures the cowslip, and calls that also ‘ Primula veris, 
Italis Lore di primavera, Gallis primevere.’—Dr. Priors Pop. 
Names of British Plants. ‘‘ Petie Mulleyn (whiche we call Cozslippe 
and Primerose) is of two sortes. ‘The smaller sorte, which we call 
Primerose, Herbasculum minus, is of diuers kindes, as yellow and 
greene, single and dubble.”—Lyte’s Dodoens, p. 122. 
39. 32. ‘“‘ Rosemary,” Lat. vosmarinus, sea-spray, from its usually 
growing on the sea-coast and its odour, is recommended by Lyte 
for fastening loose teeth. ‘Take of rewe a grete quantite, and 
sawge halfe als mekille, and vosemaryne the same quantitee.”—MS. 
Linc. Med. f. 283. According to Andrew Boorde it is a remedy for 
‘‘palses and for the fallynge syckenes, and for the cowghe, and 
good agaynst colde.” 
39. 34. “Safron,” Sp. azafran, from Arabic al zahafaran. On 
the cultivation, etc., of Saffron in England, there is a long account 
in Harrison’s Description of England, book iii. cap. 24. See note 
tO 57. 3. 
rly A} egw 
a6 t 
