THE PRIMROSE— continued. 
dusk and darkness, stronger in the evening and very sweet when obtained from a 
whole bunch of flowers. The creamy-yellow Oxlip {Primula elatior Jacquin), confined 
in Britain to a limited area round Saffron Walden, has a stronger, Apricot-like 
perfume ; but the Cowslip, deepest in colour, is also strongest in its fragrance. 
Few popular names are more obscure in their etymology than Cowslip ; but 
we may, therefore, be content to leave etymology alone and rejoice in the pleasant 
associations to which the name, as we have it, gives rise. There is indeed but little 
poetry in some of the earlier names we have for these plants. They were classed as 
Verbascula or Petty Mulleins , and Turner, in 1548, writes of them : — 
“The fyrste is called in barbarus latin Arthritica, and in englishe a Primeiose. The second is called in barbarus latin 
Paralysis, and in englishe a Cowslip, or a Cowslap, or a Pagle.” 
Arthritica , corrupted into Artetyke , and Herb Paralysy or Palsywort, though they 
occur in “The Grete Herball ” of 1526 and in Gerard, are probably now extinct ; 
and the increased ease of locomotion and the reading of books about plants tend 
nowadays to substitute general names for the old local ones. The many pretty 
names that compared the umbel of the Cowslip to a bunch of keys barely linger. 
St. Peterworty probably based on this comparison, is no longer known ; but Lady Keys 
remains near Folkestone and Culverkeys and Culverkey-wine near by, at Ashford ; 
while prettier than either is the German Himtnelschliisselcheny little keys of heaven. 
The obscure Paigle is still in common use in the south-eastern counties; and though 
we might like to connect it, as Dr. Prior does, with the German Spiegel , a mirror, 
from the children’s favourite test as to whether one “loves butter,” Professor Skeat’s 
note, quoted by Messrs. Britten and Holland, seems more convincing : — 
“French paillole ,” he writes, “Italian pagniola , mean a spangle or small piece of gold. The root of this word is 
Fr. pcilUy Ital. pagliuola, straw, chaff; and the spangles were named from their minuteness, resembling pieces of chaff. 
This derivation would make out paigle to mean a spangle.” 
It is strange that there are not nearly as many popular names for the Primrose as 
for the Cowslip, nor has the former species, perhaps, ever inspired such real poetry 
as the latter. Though imbued neither with fancy nor imagination, the sonnet by 
John Clare, of which the following lines form a part, is at least a piece of photographic 
nature-study : — 
“ Welcome, pale primrose ! starting up between 
Dead matted leaves of ash and oak that strew 
The every lawn, the wood, and spinney through. 
’Mid creeping moss and ivy’s darker green ; 
How much thy presence beautifies the ground ! 
How sweet the modest unaffected pride 
Glows on the sunny bank and wood’s warm side.” 
At present the Primrose’s beauty recedes in ever-widening circles from the 
woods in the neighbourhood of our larger towns. Degraded to the position of a 
badge in party politics, or transplanted wholesale to linger in suburban gardens, 
prolific though it is, it is actually in danger of local, if not of general, extermination. 
