The Primrose 



saying that it disappears when we pluck 

 the flower. I do not mention this mistake 

 in any fault-finding spirit, but to show 

 how needful it is for accurate observers 

 to examine many specimens ; individual 

 Primroses are occasionally scentless, but 

 it is merely the result of accident. This 

 softness is very striking, too, in the calyx, 

 with its long, light, tapering fingers, so 

 different from the broad, almost triangular 

 teeth of the loose husky calyx of the 

 Cowslip, this being, in fact, one of the 

 botanical distinctions betwixt the plants. 

 Then look at the leaves, those broad, 

 arching tongues, so deeply wrinkled and 

 uneven ; their very margins, too, wavy, 

 plaited, and irregularly indented ; the teeth, 

 with their sharp, white vein-points, softened 

 by an intervening fringe of down, and 

 tearing out almost into raggedness as 

 they near the footstalk, from which the 

 leaf gradually opens, with something of 

 the outline of a tongue of water, into the 

 flatter, broadly-rounded tip. You know 

 what I refer to here : the wavy irregular 

 outline which spilt water so often takes 

 when alternately flowing and creeping 

 slowly, and, as it were, tentatively, along 

 the ground. And the more the leaves 

 arch over, the better will the effect of 



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