The BRITISH HERBAL. 
LinnfEus joins this and the preceding under one common genus, witli the name primtihi ; but the 
diipofidon of tile flowers is a fufFicient diftintftioil. 
1. Common Cowflip. 
Varalyfis vulgaris. 
The root is compofed of many fibres, con- 
nected to a imall head. 
The leaves are numerous and broad : they are 
of a darlc green on the upper fide, and whitifh, 
and fomewhat hairy on the under ; rough on the 
furface, fomewhat uneven at the edges, and ob- 
tufeiy pointed. 
Tlie ftall^s rife in the centre of thefe tufts : tlicy 
are round, thick, firm, upright, pale-coloured, 
and a little hairy. 
On the top of each ftand ten or a dozen 
flowers ; thefe arc fmall and yellow : they ftand 
in long, hollow, ribbed cups, and are fucceeded 
by long, fiender feed-veflels. 
it is common in our paltures, and flowers in 
May. 
C. Bauhine calls it Vcrbafcuhim pratenfe odora- 
tum. Others, Paralyjis ■vulgaru. 
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 iefs 
violent than the juice of the primrofe root, but 
very well anfwers its purpofe. 
The flowers of the cot^Jlip 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- 
racion, and difpofe gently to flecp. The j:iice of 
cowjlip leaves and milk drank every day for a 
fortnight, and afterwards every other day for a 
month, is a remedy for inveterate headachs. 
2. 'I'hc Oxlip. 
ParaJy/is jlore ■imjors. 
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 duilty green, and obtufe. 
In the centre of thefe riles 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 coiL'Jlip flowers, but in 
every refpcft 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 cowjlip flower ; they have 
very much the afpeft of a parcel of fmall prim- 
roles fixed upon a co-ii'flip ftalk : their colour is a 
whitilh yellow, and they have very little fmell. 
It is common in our paftures, flowerintr 
with the others. 
C. Bauhine calls this fpecics Verhafatlum fylva- 
X ' 7- 
ticum vel pratnfe imdmim. J. Bauhine, Primula 
•veris ciiulifsra pallida jlore imdoro aut w'.v cdoro. 
We call it the Great mujlip, or oxhp. 
Linnasus makes the primrofe, cowjlip, and ox- 
lip, all the fame fpecies of plant. He defcribes the 
cowjlip, and introduces the two otliers under the 
name of varieties. Let the reader on this occa- 
fion properly underftand what varieties are : they 
are thofe changes of appearance feen in the fame 
fpecies of plant under different ftates of nourifii- 
ment, and other accidents. The old writers 
when they faw a plant whofe flower was natu- 
rally blue or red, with a white one, which is a 
common accident, called it another fpecies ; this 
was an error, for that is only a variety. 
In the fame manner, when a plant was ftarved 
and fmall, they often defcribed it as another fpe- 
cies : this alfo was erroneous : all changes in 
plants made by ftarvingj and th« more nume- 
rous ones by culture, are varieties ; but no acci- 
dent of this kind could make a cowjlip root pro- 
duce a primrofe. I have had the cowjlip, oxlip, 
and primrofe, brought into a garden, where 
they continue year after year the fame, and their 
feeds produce the fame diftinft kinds, and no 
other. Thefe are the tefts whereto we bring 
plants, in which there is a doubt whether there 
be diftinft fpecies or varieties called lb, and they 
are conclufive. 
The oxlip feeming an intermediate plant be^ 
tween the cowflip and primrofe, naturally led Lin- 
niEUs into this error ; but there are thefe grada- 
tions in nature ei'cry where, though nor enough 
regarded. She travels always by regular and 
even fteps : there are no gaps between. 
The world is indebted to LinniEus greatly for 
rejeSing 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 Jlore ruheme. 
The root is compofed of numerous, thick, and 
long fibres. 
The leaves rife in a little tuft, and are lontf 
and narrow : they are fmooth, of a pale green^ 
and fliarply fcrratcd at the edges. 
1 hey fpread themfelves every way on the 
ground, and have no footftalks. 
The ftalk is round and firm, upright, and four 
inches high. 
On its top ftand many flowers, as in the 
cowjlip, but more ereft, and in general more 
numerous : they are fmall, of a beautiful pale 
red i and each ftands feparately on a long, flen-. 
der footftalk, all rifing from the fame point on 
the main ftalk. 
The feed-veflels are fmall and oblong, and 
the feeds numerous and very minute. 
The flowers in this pl.int differ in more than 
colour from the cowjlip ; for the fegments are not 
heart-faOfioned or dented at the ends, but plain. 
T IE 
