meadows or by the hedge-side. The first Primrose of the year is prized and welcomed, but when the thick tufts of its blossoms are seen, then we feel that spring is really come, and we almost fancy that no other flower ever looked so lovely or so fresh and pure. Botanically, the Primrose is an excellent example of a plant with regular monopetalous corolla, and is a good specimen for a first lesson in botany. Pretty flower as it is, all animals reject it as food excepting the pig. It seems, however, not wholly objected to by man, or woman either, for I lately saw a receipt for a primrosepudding. A kind of wine, too, is made from the flowers, something like cowslip wine, but more delicate in flavour.

COWSLIP.

PRIMULA OFFICINALIS.

THERE seems to be no reason for describing the Cowslip, for I suppose every one knows it as an old friend of childhood, as well as its relative the primrose, or its frequent companion the daisy. It belongs, as may be almost inferred, to the same natural order as the primrose-Primulaceæ, and there is evidently a tendency in the one species to run into the other. We have seen specimens of primroses becoming small, and growing two or three on a stalk, on a plant

bearing single-stalked primroses, and cowslip flowers on single short stalks, amidst the tiny clusters of cups usually found on a Cowslip stalk. In some country places the Cowslip is called the Paigle. Its flowers contain a quantity of honey, and possess some very slight narcotic properties which has induced the idea that an infusion of them is good as a medicine. Cowslip wine is a favourite country febrifuge, and is given to children in all sorts of feverish attacks, such as measles and the like. The gathering of Cowslip flowers forms quite an occupation in Worcestershire, where they are sold by measure to the British winemakers of that part of the country. They are fermented with sugar and water, and when well prepared are really not unpalatable. The sedative qualities of the plant are sufficient to have procured for it the reputation of an anodyne, and we find Pope writing

"For want of rest

Lettuce and cowslip; probatum est."

Montgomery also alludes to the process of winemaking from the flowers

"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 root of the Cowslip is also astringent and diuretic, and was at one time used medicinally. It has