THE COWSLIP. 
(. Pensiveness—Winning Youthful Grace.) 
ii 
HE “ pretty Mullein,” as it is called, is one of the 
sweetest of our meadow flowers. The yellow 
oxlip is larger, and not quite so common. 
Cowslip wine is pleasant, and said to be slightly 
narcotic. 
Shakspeare, speaking of the Fairy Queen, says : 
“ The cowslips tall her pensioners be ; 
In their gold coats spots we see ; 
Those be rubies, fairy favours,— 
In those freckles live their savours ; 
I must go seek some dewdrops here, 
And hang a pearl in every cowslip’s ear.” 
Milton, in his masque of “ Comus,” has given an 
exquisite song to Sabrina, in which the airy tread of that 
goddess “ o’er the cowslip’s velvet head” is most delicately 
expressed: 
“ By the rushy, fringed bank, 
Where grow the willow and the osier dank, 
My sliding chariot stays ; 
Thick set with agate and the azure sheen 
Of turkis blue and emerald green, 
That in the channel strays ; 
Whilst from olf the waters fleet, 
Thus I set my printless feet, 
