\ 
The BRUIT LS HY H ER B AYE, 
265 
Linnzeus joins this and the preceding under one common genus, with the name Primula; but the 
difpofition of the flowers is a fufficient diftinétion. 
4. Common Cowflip, 
Paralyfis vulgaris, 
The root is compofed of many fibres, con- 
nected to a fmall head. 
The leaves are numerous and broad : they are 
of adark green on the upper fide, and whitith, 
and fomewhat hairy on the under; rough on the 
furface, fomewhat uneven at the edges, and ob- 
tufely pointed. 
The ftalks rife in the centre of thefe tufts : they 
are round, thick, firm, upright, pale-coloured, 
and a little hairy. 
On the top of each ftand ten ora dozen 
flowers ; thefe-are fmall and yellow: they ftand 
in long, hollow, ribbed cups, and are fucceeded 
by long, flender feed-veffels. 
It is common in our paftures, and flowers in 
May. 
C. Bauhine calls it Verbafculum pratenfe odora- 
tum. Others, Paralyfis vulgaris. 
It is good againft diforders of the nerves. The 
root has the principal virtue : the country-people 
boil this in ale, and give it in giddineffes of the , 
head with fuccefs. 
“The juice of it, mixed with vinegar, is alfo ufed 
to fnuff up the nofe, againft headachs: it is lefs 
violent than the juice of the primrofe root, but 
very well anfwers its purpofe. 
The flowers of the cowy/lip are of a gently nar- 
cotick quality : they are made into conferve and 
fyrup for this purpofe, and may be given where 
other medicines of the fame quality would be 
dangerous: they mitigate pain, promote perfpi- 
ration, and difpofe gently to fleep. The juice of 
cowflip leaves and milk drank every day for a 
fortnight, and afterwards every other day for a 
month, is a remedy for inveterate headachs. 
2. The Oxlip. 
Pavalyfis flore majore. 
The root confifts of a large, oblong head, 
from which there-run a vaft many long and thick 
fibres. ; ‘ 
The leaves are numerous, large, oblong, and 
rough : they are of a dufky green, and obtufe. 
In the centre of thefe rifes the ftalk, which is 
_ thick, round, firm, upright, of a pale colour, 
and five inches high. 
The flowers ftand in a clufter at the top of this 
ftalk, in the manner of cowflip flowers, but in 
every refpect larger : they are from eight or ten 
to twenty in number : they have long and flender 
footftalks; and they are much broader, and of a 
paler colour, than the cowflip flower : they have 
very much the afpeét of a parcel of {mall prim- 
rofes fixed upon a cow/lip ftalk : their colour is a 
whitith yellow, and they have very little fmell. 
Tt is common in our paftures, flowering 
with the others. 
C. Bauhine calls this fpecies Verbafculum fylva- 
N°». 
. fion properly underftand what varieties are : 
tucumn vel pratenfe inedorum. Jj. Bauhine, Primula 
veris caulifera pallido Hlore inodoro aut vix cdoro. 
We call it the Great comflip, or oxlip, 
Linnzus makes the Primrofe, cow/lip, and ox. 
lip, all the fame fpecies of plant. He defcribes the 
cowflip, and introduces the two others under the 
name of varieties. Let the reader on this occa. 
they 
are thofe changes of appearance feen in the fame 
{pecies of. plant under different ftates of nourifh- 
ment, and other accidents. The old writers, 
when they faw a plant whole flower was natu- 
rally blue or red, with a white one, which is a 
common accident, called it another {pecies : this 
was an error, for that is only a variety, 
_In the fame manner, when a plant was ftarved 
and finall, they often defcribed it as another {pe- 
cies: this alfo was erroneous: all changes in 
plants made by ftarving, and the more nume= 
Tous ones by culture, are varieties ; but no acci- 
dent of this kind could make a cowflip root pro- 
duce a primrofe.. I have had the cowfip, oxlip, 
and primrofe, brought into a garden, where 
they continue year after year the fame, and their 
feeds produce the fame difting kinds, and-no 
other. Thefe are the tefts whereto we bring 
plants, in which there is a doubt whether there 
be diftin& fpecies or varieties called fo, and they 
are conclufive. 
The oxlip feeming an intermediate plant be- 
tween the:cow/iip and primrofe; naturally led Lin- 
neus into this error; but there are thefe gtada- — 
tions in nature every where, though not enough 
tegarded. She travels always by regular and 
even fteps: there are no gaps between. 
The world is indebted to Linnzus Sreatly for 
rejecting many imaginary fpecies, which he has 
Properly fet down only as varieties; but in this, 
and fome other inftances, he has carried that 
POint too far. So penetrating a genius is rarely 
united with a ftrict and chafte judgment. 
3+ Birds Eye, - 
Paralyfis flore rubeute, 
The root is compofed of numerous, thick, and 
long fibres, . : 
The leaves rife in a little tuft, and are long 
and narrow : they are {mooth, of a pale green, 
and fharply ferrated at the edges. : 
They fpread  themfelves every 
ground, and have no footttalks, c 
The ftalk is round and firm, upright, and four 
inches high, i 
On its top ftand many flowers, as in the 
cowflip, but more ereét, and in general more 
numerous: they are fmall, of a beautiful pale 
red; and each ftands feparately on a long, flen- 
der footftalk, all rifing from the fame point on 
the main ftalk, 
The feed-veffels are {mall and oblong, 
the feeds numerous and very minute. ~ 
The flowers in this plant differ in more than 
colour from the cowflip ; for the fegments are nor 
heart-fafhioned or dented at the ends, but plain. 
a Tc 
Way on the 
and 
