vJOWSLIP is an English wild flower, 
native of pastures in Europe. In spring the 
fields are decked with this modest, delicate 
little flower, and its fragrance and beauty- 
make it a universal favorite. It is a kind of 
common primrose. The cowslip plant is a 
stemless perennial herb having a rosette of 
oval shaped soft leaves. Numerous flower 
stalks six to ten inches tall arise from this 
rosette of leaves. These flower stalks bear six 
or eight fragrant bright yellow flowers ar¬ 
ranged in an umbel forming a showy flower 
cluster that nods gracefully to one side. The 
plant called cowslip in America is really the 
marsh marigold; it is also known as “pride of 
Ohio” and “shooting star.” In the United 
States, cowslip is found mostly in the Middle 
West. Cheer and happiness are spread by this 
lovely bright yellow flower as it gilds the level 
green in fair spring. Many poets have paid 
tribute to the cowslip in lines of beautiful 
verse. Burns refers to its beauty when he 
says, “And wild-scattered cowslip bedecks the 
green dale.” Blair makes reference to its 
charm when he writes, “Smiled like yon knot 
of cowslips on a cliff.” Even Tennyson sings 
of it in his poem Adeline when he says, 
“And ye talk together still, 
In the language wherewith spring 
Letters cowslips on the hill.” 
And Milton in his Comics Song pays tribute to 
this lovely little flower when he writes, 
“Thus I set my printless feet 
O’er the cowslip’s velvet head, 
That bends not as I tread.” 
Today, cowslip is used as the common name 
for many different varieties of plants both in 
America and Europe. Many improved species 
have been produced, different in form and 
color — lilac, white, and rose color, with petals 
turned back over the calyx, resembling a 
cyclamen. These varieties are very effective 
and ornamental when used 
in a flower border. 
