ENGLISH PLANT NAMES. 
123 
Cow-rattle. Lychnis vespertina, Sibth. — S. Bucks. This name, though 
now aj)parently very local, is of ancient date. In Cockayne (iii. 320) 
is the following from MS. Lansd. 553 : ‘ Cauliensis agrestis = glaiide 
or cowratle {cowrattle margin). This herbe hath leves liche to plan- 
tayne, but hii biith nought so much & he hath a stalk to the lengeth 
of a cubyte, & he hath whit floures, & he groweth in whete.’ There 
can be little doubt that the above-named plant is here intended, but 
perhaps Silene injiata, L., was comprehended under the name, as is 
still the case in S. Bucks. 
Cows and Calves. The flowers of Arum maculatum, L. — Hal. Wr. 
Pulman ; Dors. ; I. of Portland : N. Line. E. D. S. Gloss. C. 6 ; 
Nhamp. Nth. Gloss.; Notts.; Sal. (Worthin); Warw. ; Wore.; Yks. 
In N. Yks. also called Cows and Kies. 
Cowslap. Primula veris, L. — Turn. Names. 
Cowslek. Primulja veris^ L. — Prompt. Parv. 
Cow’s-lick. Bryonia dioica, L. — Norf. 
Cowslip. (1) Primula veris, L. — Grete Herball, where it is spelt 
Cowslypp; Turn. Names. S.-W. Cumh. ; E. Lord. Bot. E. Bord. ; 
Yks. (Cleveland); West, Turn. Herb., where it is spelt Cowislip. 
Mr. H. Weatherill favours us with the following note upon this name : 
‘ The etymon of the A.S. cuslippe is supposed to be cus and lippe, i. e. 
cow’s-lip. Yet Bosworth gives us cus-lippe for cowslip and oxan- 
sUppan for oxlips — a division of the words which makes for each a 
different derivation and meaning. In our York dialect the name of 
the flower and plant is cooslop, a name which I believe to be derived 
from keslop (A.S. ceselib, cyselih), which is our provincial term for the 
prepared stomach of the calf, used as rennet for the coagulation of 
milk in cheese-making, &c. The name cooslop, I suppose, originated 
in a fancied resemblance between the wrinkled leaves and calyx of 
the plant and the corrugated surface of the calf’s stomach. (In Arch. 
XXX. 409, kousloppes.) See Atkinson’s Cleveland Gloss., sub keslip 
and loppered. In support of this etymology, I may mention that the 
name for the cowslip in Durham and Northumberland is coostropple, 
a name which seems to have been given them from an imagined 
resemblance of the plant to the plaits of a coids throttle. In the Yale 
of Pickering cowslips are called coostripUns and coostruplins, names 
having a similar signification as coostropple. In Norfolk stroop signifies 
the gullet.’ See Cowslop. See also Prior, p. 54. 
(2) ‘ The oxlip,’ under which name the plant often called P. varia- 
hilis, Goup., is included, as well as the true P. elatior, Jacq. — Ess. 
Bay; Cwnih. ; Herts.; (Ashford, Journ. of Horticulture, May 1, 
1873; Dover, Phyt. v. 36, N. s.) ; Middx. Bay; Norf,; Suff. Bay. 
(3) Orchis mascula, L. — Butl. 
(4) Narcissus Pseudo-narcissus, L. — Dev. 
(5) Anemone nemorosa, L. — ‘ Cowslip is the popular name for 
Anemone nemorosa in the north’ of Scotland. — Border Magazine, 1863, 
p. 286. 
(6) Fritillaria Meleagris,Y. — Hants. (Strathfieldsaye), Phyt. iii. 965. 
Cowslip, Bedlam. Pulmonaria officinalis, L. — See Bedlam Cowslip. 
