48 WILD FLOWERS. 



cannot see each other while passing through a 

 plain covered with its flowers." 



Blooming beside the clover, and nodding far 

 above it, we may find the " fragrant dweller of 

 the lea," the yellow cowslip, or \)aigle, (Primula 

 veris,)and alsothe yellow oxlip(P?7mMZa elatior.) 

 This latter plant is less common than the cow- 

 slip, and much Uke it, but it has larger flowers. 

 The leaves of both are like those of the prim- 

 rose. The cowslip was formerly called " petty 

 mullein," and " palsy Avort ;" and as the French 

 still term it, herbedelapai'alysie, it probably had 

 some old renown as a medicine. An ointment 

 of cowslip leaves has long been used to remove 

 tan and freckles from the sun-burnt complexion. 



The cowslip is a great ornament to our spring 

 meadows. Nightingales are affirmed by some 

 ornithologists, to have a peculiar predilection 

 for these flowers. It has been said that they 

 are only found where cowslips are plentiful. 

 " Certainly," says Mr. Jacob, in his " Flora of 

 Devon and Cornwall," " with "regard to these 

 counties, the coincidence is just :" but the writer 

 of these pages knows a copse, much frequented 

 by nightingales, and from which a chorus of 

 their songs issues in spring, but around which 

 cowslips cannot be found for some miles. 



Another meadow flower, the cuckoo-flower, 

 {Cardamine pi-atensis,) with its pale lilac blos- 

 soms and pungent leaves, is now abundant in 

 moist meadows ; as are also several other species 

 of cardamine, too closely allied to each other 

 to be easily discriminated. The little dark- 



