XXXV 



THE title of this paper has no reference to that Scottish 

 The Prim- family which the present Earl of Rosebery 

 rose Family nas made historic, but to a far more ancient 

 race than his. It is not mentioned among the denizens 

 of the Garden of Eden, but it must have been repre- 

 sented there, else was that garden a far less delectable 

 pleasaunce than we have been given to believe. 



Of all the flowers of the field there is no more 

 aristocratic race than the primroses. Nearly all other 

 plants with blossoms of conspicuous beauty are afflicted 

 with poor relations. The rose, for instance, has some 

 very disreputable cousins in the brambles ; the golden- 

 rayed lily, be it never so gorgeous, the lily-of-the- 

 valley, be it never so chaste, the tulip, be it never so 

 gaily pranked, may never disclaim close affinity with the 

 plebeian onion ; and as for the aubretia, flushing every 

 springtide into sheets of delicious purple, and the fragrant 

 stocks and wallflowers, they own a common descent with 

 scores of obscure or troublesome weeds. But the prim- 

 rose family, in all its numerous branches primula 

 cyclamen, androsace, soldanella, dodecatheon, lyai- 

 machia, etc. hardly contains a single species without 



