CORTU^SA MATHROLl. 
MATHIOLUS’S BEAR’S-EAR SANICLE. 
Class. Order. 
PBNTANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
PRlMULACEiE. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Cultivated 
Austria. 
6 inches. 
May, June. 
Perennial. 
in 1596. 
No. 296. 
Corhtsa is a name given by Mathiolus, in honour 
of iiis friend Jacob Antonio Cortusus, professor of 
botany at Padua; and the trivial name was subse- 
quently added in honour of Mathiolus himself. 
This plant approaches too nearly to the primula 
tribe to be uninteresting to any of our readers. 
Though it has been an inhabitant of English gardens 
during the last two or three centuries, still as it cannot 
exist under careless management and neglect, it is 
oftentimes lost, and as often regretted. 
Its leaves are stated by Mathiolus to possess a rube- 
facient quality ; and Curtis suggests that they should 
supply the place of rouge, on the pallid cheek of the 
fair belle, who has been unduly immured witliin the 
precincts of a crowded city. It is a simple applica- 
tion of the leaf to the skin awhile, which is said to 
produce the delicate redness ; and which after some 
time will disappear without injury. 
The Cortusa is most successfully kept in a pot of 
loam and peat. Shade, and a tolerably free supply 
of water in summer, with the cold frame protection 
in winter, combined with a moderate degree of at- 
tention, will preserve it in good health. 
Hort. Kew. 2, v. 1, 310. 
