P RI 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



R I 



399 



earth, into which they should be transplanted, placing them 

 six inches asunder, equally in rows; observing, if the season 

 prove dry, t-o water them until they have taken root. In these 

 borders the plants will flower in the succeeding spring, when 

 such of them as are unusually fine should be marked to be 

 preserved, and the rest may be transplanted into wildernesses 

 and other shady places in the garden, where, although they 

 are not very valuable flowers, they will afford an agreeable 

 variety. Those plants which you intend to preserve, may be 

 removed soon after they have done flowering, provided it be 

 not intended to save seeds from them. They may then be 

 transplanted into a fresh border of the like rich earth, allow- 

 ing them the same distance as before, observing also to water 

 them until they have taken root; after which they will require 

 no further care except to keep them clean from weeds, and 

 as their roots will be in full vigour in the spring, they will 

 then produce strong flowers, or, if the kind be good, they 

 will be little inferior to a show of Auriculas. These roots 

 should be constantly removed and parted every year, and 

 the earth of the border changed ; otherwise they will dege- 

 nerate, and lose the greatest part of flieir beauty. If you 

 intend to save the seeds, which is the method to obtain a 

 great variety, mark such of them as have good properties. 

 These should be, if possible, separated from all ordinary 

 flowers, for if they stand surrounded by such as are plain- 

 coloured, they will impregnate each other, whereby the 

 seeds of the valuable flowers will not be near so good. The 

 best way therefore is to take out the roots of the inferior 

 sorts, and plant them in another place as soon as the flowers 

 open. The flowers of those plants intended for seed, when 

 growing in large bunches, should not be gathered, but those 

 only that are produced singly upon pedicels. In dry sea- 

 sons the former must be now and then refreshed with water, 

 \vhich will increase the size and number of their seeds, which 

 will ripen in June: this will be easily known by the pods 

 changing brown, and opening. At that time the plants 

 should be looked over three or four times a week, gathering 

 each time such of the seed-vessels as are ripe; laying the 

 seeds upon a paper to dry, and then putting them by until 

 the season for sowing. As the plants which arise from seeds 

 generally flower much better than offsets, those who would 

 have these flowers in perfection should sow the seeds annu- 

 ally. These plants blow at the same time, and require 

 nearly the same treatment, as Auriculas, both with respect 

 to soil and situation ; they are, however, more impatient of 

 heat and drought, and more partial to shade and moisture. 

 They may be set in the same sized pots and the same com- 

 post as the Auricula, only with the addition of more loam : 

 or, they may be planted on cool shady beds or borders, 

 being very hardy, and seldom perishing in the coldest and 

 wettest seasons, because their parent is a native of this 

 country: but without proper precautions they will be de- 

 stroyed by the heat of the summer. This dislike of heat 

 seems to indicate that the Polyanthus is a variety of the 

 Primrose, which requires shade, and not of the Cowslip, 

 which adorns our open pastures; though it is generally 

 regarded as a variety of the latter. These plants are very 

 subject to the depredations of snails and slugs in the spring 

 of the year; hence the plants ought to be carefully examined 

 every morning. Their worst enemy, however, is a small red 

 spider, or Acarus, which in summer forms its web on the 

 under side of the leaves. These little insects, scarcely visible 

 without a magnifying glass, cause the leaves to become yel- 

 low and spotted, and essentially destroy the plant: they 

 multiply rapidly, and will infest a large collection in a very 

 short time. Such plants as appear infected should be imtne- 

 VOL. ii. 99. 



diately taken up, and soaked for two or three hours in a 

 strong infusion of tobacco-water, and afterwards replanted 

 in a fresh soil or compost, at a distance from their former 

 situation. If the whole bed or border be infected, the plants 

 must all undergo the same process and removal. The old 

 bed or border should then lie fallow till the next season, or 

 be planted with another crop not subject to such disasters. 

 These plants may also be increased by slips or offsets taken 

 off when they are fresh potted. For further particulars, see 

 the thirteenth species. 



3. Primula Elatior; Great Coivslip, or Oxlip. Leaves 

 toothed, wrinkled, contracted in the middle; scape many- 

 flowered; border of the corolla flat. This is distinguished 

 from the Primrose, by its many-flowered scape; and from 

 the Cowslip, by the flat border of the corolla. It is found in 

 woods, thickets, hedges, and sometimes in pastures, but is 

 by no means so common as the Primrose and Cowslip. It 

 has been found in calcareous soils among the thickets and 

 hedges of Cambridgeshire; on clayey pastures in Suffolk; in 

 Headington-wick copse, Stow wood, and South Leigh, in 

 Oxfordshire; common in some parts of Bedfordshire; near 

 Hilland and Shillingley park, in Sussex; near Wray-house, 

 adjoining to the river Rhodon in Essex ; and on high pastures 

 near Little Wenlock in Shropshire. It flowers in April and 

 May. See the second species. 



4. Primula Officinalis ; Common Cowslip, or Paiyle. 

 Leaves toothed, wrinkled, contracted in the middle; scape 

 many-flowered; border of the corolla concave. The root is 

 like that of the Primrose, but smells more powerfully of 

 Anise. Plentiful in the meadows and pastures of England, 

 and other parts of Europe, but only on a strong soil of clay or 

 marl, flowering in April or May. The leaves are sometimes 

 used as a pot-herb, and in salads; they are recommended for 

 feeding silkworms, and may serve the same purpose as seed- 

 ling Lettuces for the young worms before the Mulberry leaves 

 make their appearance, as they only can aflfdrd the proper 

 nourishment. The fragrant flowers make a pleasant wine, 

 approaching in flavour to the Muscadel wirtes of the south 

 of France, which is of a gentle narcotic quality, easing pain, 

 promoting sweat, and gently disposing to sleep. The flowers, 

 which are commonly supposed to possess a 'Somniferous 

 quality, have a roughish bitterish taste, which they impart 

 with their agreeable odour and yellow tincture both to water 

 and spirit. Vinous liquors impregnated with them, by mace- 

 ration or fermentation, and strong infusions of them drank as 

 tea, are supposed to be mildly corroborant, antispasmodic, 

 and anodyne. An infusion of three pounds of the fresh flow- 

 ers in five pints of boiling water, is made into a sirup of a 

 fine yellow colour, agreeably impregnated with the flavour of 

 the Cowslips. Hill observes, that the roots boiled in ale, 

 are given by country people in vertigoes or giddiness of the 

 head, with frequent and happy success; and the juice snuffed 

 up the nose, either alone or mixed with vinegar, will many 

 times give relief in the head-ach. Linneus having united the 

 Primrose, Oxlip, and Cowslip, in one species, found no 

 difficulty in naming it Veris; but for those who have since 

 considered them as three species, it is not so easy. Acaulis 

 may tend to mislead novices, and Veris is too general; hence 

 the epithet Vulgaris is here applied to the Primrose, follow- 

 ing Hudson, Withering, Relhan, and Smith. The name 

 Inodora might have suited the Oxlip, if the flowers really 

 had not their very grateful smell: and Elatior would suit 

 better, compared with the Primrose, if the scape of the Cow- 

 slip were not the tallest of the three. This did not. escape 

 Shakspeare's eye, who, in his Midsummer Night's Dream, 

 makes the Cowslip subservient to the Queen of the Fairies; 



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