290 PENTANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. Primula 
with this beautiful spring flower, though so rare in Devonshire, accord¬ 
ing to the Editor of Camden, as to grow exclusively about Kent’s Hole, 
near Torquay. E.) P. April—May.* 
P. farino'sa. Leaves scolloped, smoothed: border of the blossom flat: 
(summit undivided. E.) 
Dicks. H. S. — E. Bot. 6 — Curt. — FI. Dan. 125 — Wale. — Gmel. iv. 44. 2 and 
3 — Kniph. 9 — Ger. 639.2 and 1 — Clus. i. 300. 1 — Lob. Obs. 307. 2 —Ger. 
Em. 783. 1— H. Ox. v. 24. row 2. 5 and 6 — Clus. 300. 2 — Lob. Obs. 307. 1 
—Ger. Em. 783. 2 —J. B. iii. 498. 3. Ib. 3. Q—H. Ox. Ib. 7 — J. B. Ib. 2. 
Swert. ii. 4. 9— Park. Par. 243. 10. 
(A most elegant plant, much smaller than the last. Flowers erect. Scape 
six to nine inches high, umbellate. E.) Fruit-stalks and' calyx as if 
dusted with flour. Linn. Leaves veiny and mealy underneath. Blossom 
bluish red, with a yellow eye. 
Bird’s-eye Primrose. Marshes and bogs on mountains in the north. 
Ray. Woodward. Meadows near Kendal in the richest profusion. Stokes. 
Wet places near Darlington. Mr. Robson. Covering whole meadows 
with a fine pinky colour, about Coniston, and other parts of Craven, 
* The blossoms are used for making Cowslip wine, (accounted soporific, and thus 
recommended by Pope, 
-- “ for want of rest 
Lettuce and Cowslip wine : probatum est.” 
Montgomery also alludes to tbe like process : 
“ Whose simple sweets with curious skill. 
The frugal cottage dames distil. 
Nor envy France the vine, 
While many a festal cup they fill 
With Britain’s homely wine.” 
The flowers are, for the same purpose, sometimes mixed with tea, or infused alone. They 
have likewise been considered antispasmodic, whence probably the French designation Herbe 
de la Paralysie. E.) The leaves are sometimes eaten as a pot-herb, and in sallads. The 
root has a tine scent, like anise.—Silkworms are fond of the leaves and flowers. Trans. 
Soc. of Arts, ii. p. 157; (but the silk thus produced is not of the. best quality. Milton 
elegantly defines the appropriate tints of these favourite congeners,— 
“ The flowery May, who from her green lap throws 
The yellow Cowslip , and the pale Primrose.” 
And our great dramatic bard, with an accuracy of discrimination approaching to scientific, 
and an inventive imagination truly poetical, depicts the saffron-coloured spots of the blossom 
as “ Fairy favours,” in his Midsummer Night's Dream. But for genuine simplicity, and 
unsophisticated pathos, no effusion connected with the subject exceeds the following by W. 
Howitt, on finding an early Cowslip:— 
“ It is the same ! It is the very scent, 
That bland, yet luscious, meadow-breathing sweet, 
Which I remember when my childish feet. 
With a new life’s rejoicing spirit, went 
Thro’ the deep grass with wild flowers richly blent. 
That smiled to high Heav’n from their verdant seat. 
But it brings not to thee such joy complete : 
Thou can’st not see, as I do, how we spent 
In blessedness, in sunshine, and in flow’rs, 
The beautiful noon : and then, how seated round 
The odorous pile, upon the shady ground, 
A boyish group—we laughed aw»ay the hours, 
Plucking the yellow blooms for future wine, 
While o’er us play’d a mother’s smile divine.” E.) 
