Flowers and Gardens 



Cowslip, as we have said, is a singularly 

 healthy - looking plant ; indeed, nothing 

 about it is more remarkable. It has none 

 of the delicacy and timidity of the Prim- 

 rose. All its characters are well and 

 healthily pronounced. The paleness is 

 uniform, steady, and rather impresses us 

 as whiteness, and the yellow of the cup 

 is as rich as gold. The odour is not 

 faint, but saccharine and luscious. It does 

 not shrink into the sheltered covert, but 

 courts the free air and sunshine of the 

 open fields ; and instead of its flowers 

 peeping timidly from behind surrounding 

 leaves, it raises them boldly on a stout 

 sufficient stalk, the most conspicuous ob- 

 ject in the meadow. We have in the 

 Cowslip no finer spiritual suggestions, 

 none of the more evanescent and retir- 

 ing beauties, except perhaps in the sleek 

 white skin, with its exquisite softness of 

 tone. Its poetry is the poetry of common 

 life, but of the most delicious common life 

 that can exist. The plant is in some 

 respects careless to the verge of disorder ; 

 and you should note that carelessness 

 well till you feel the force of it, as 

 especially in the lame imperfection of the 

 flower buds, only, perhaps, half of them 

 well developed, and the rest dangling 



53 



