^ Violets, ^Primroses and Wallflowers $£ 



are not afrayd to offend.' Cooper, who was cook to 

 Charles I, gives a recipe for cowslip cream, which must 

 have been a dish fit for a king, though it horrifies one to 

 think of anyone eating cowslips. According to his recipe 

 he bruised the young cowslips and beat them up with a 

 quart of cream, the yolks of two or three eggs, fine sugar 

 and orange flower water, and served the dish strewn with 

 the flowers. 



The American cowslip, or * Shooting Star ' (Dode- 

 catheon Meadia), which is a native of many parts of 

 North America, was introduced into England over 

 200 years ago, for it was sent from Virginia to Bishop 

 Compton (then Bishop of London) in 1704. Philip Miller 

 mentions having seen it in bloom in the Bishop's garden 

 at Fulham Palace in 1709. After that it was apparently 

 lost. In 1744 it was again introduced by a Mr. Catesby, 

 who named it after Dr. Richard Mead, a celebrated doctor 

 of the day. Linnaeus gave it the name Dodecatheon, 

 though why he should call this flower * twelve gods ' it is 

 difficult to understand. ' Shooting Star ' is descriptive 

 of the graceful pendent flowers which certainly remind 

 one of the fireworks known as ' shooting stars.' There 

 are several species, D. giganteum being one of the best. 

 The American cowslip is not particular as to soil, though 

 it likes plenty of leaf-mould, but part shade is essential. 

 It can easily be raised from seed or increased by division 

 of the roots in September. In at least two books D. 

 Meadia is described as having a clove-like scent (though 

 in no book by an American authority have I ever found 

 such a statement). The scent strikes me as fainter than 

 those of almost any of the primula family, and certainly 

 not clove-like ! 



43 



