The Primrose 



veins, and see, with the plant at some 

 little distance, what an exquisite soft- 

 ness it produces there, faintly bedimming 

 the already lighter green, and whitening 

 like hoar-frogt when placed in certain 

 aspects. At the down-turned margin of 

 the leaf it stops, and never appears 

 upon the upper surface. Now this pale- 

 ness seems to hang about the plant like 

 a mystery, for though the leaves of the 

 Primrose may at times show a trace of 

 the steady paleness of the Cowslip, it 

 is more usually confined to their under 

 surfaces, and the white flower-stalks with 

 their clothing of down. And when we 

 are looking at the Primrose, one or other 

 of these downy changeful portions is 

 continually coming into view, so that 

 we get a feeling as if there hung about 

 the whole a clothing of soft evanescent 

 mist, thickening about the centre of the 

 plant, and the under surfaces of the 

 leaves which are less exposed to the 

 sun. And then we reach one of the 

 main expressions of the Primrose. When 

 we look at the pale sweet flowers, and 

 the soft-toned green of the herbage, 

 softened further here and there by that 

 uncertain mist of down, the dryness 

 of the leaf and fur enters forcibly into 

 65 E 



