Flowers and Gardens 



other plants, as Lilies, Narcissuses, or 

 Violets. Now just such a healthy milk- 

 fed look, just such a sweet healthy odour, 

 is what we find in cows — an odour which 

 breathes around them as they sit at rest 

 in the pasture, and is believed by many, 

 perhaps with truth, to be actually cura- 

 tive of disease. So much, then, for the 

 name of our plant. The " lips," of 

 course, is but a general reference to the 

 shape of the petals, and indicates the 

 source of the fragrance.^ 



" Cowslips wan, that hang the pensive head," 



writes Milton in the " Lycidas." But this 

 is not true. There certainly are some 

 plants in which Nature seems to hint 

 at an appearance of disease, and then 

 by some special means converts it into 

 a beauty. Take, for instance, the little 

 gland-tipped hairs which clothe the young 

 blossom-stalks of the flowering currant. 

 They look, at first sight, a little ques- 

 tionable, and we might doubt if they were 

 not something like aphides or mildew. 

 But, on examining closer, we find that 



1 [Few plant-names have been more discussed than 

 Cowslip ; but the N.E.D. has now proved that, whatever 

 the association with the animal may have been, the first 

 syllable is the Cow, and the last syllable has no connec- 

 tion with human or other lips. — H. N. E.] 



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