Those be rubies, fairy favours,

In those freckles live their savours:

I must go seek some dew-drops here,

And hang a pearl in every Cowslip's ear.

Milton describes Sabrina's airy tread over this flower by the beautiful song of the goddess.

Whilst from off the waters fleet
Thus I set my printless feet

O'er the Cowslip's velvet head,
That bends not as I tread.

The calyx of the Cowslip is the most delicate of all the shades of green which are presented to us by the vegetable kingdom: hence Hurdis calls it The love-sick Cowslip, that the head inclines,

To hide a bleeding heart.

The last line is in allusion to the orange or red mark in the cup of the flower, from whence it is often called the Freckled Cowslip :

rich in vegetable gold

From calyx pale the freckled Cowslip born, Receives in amber cup the fragrant dews of morn. Shakspeare refers to this red speckle, when he makes Iachimo describe Imogene as having

on her left breast

A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops
I' the bottom of a Cowslip.

The Cowslip is seldom found in the immediate neighbourhood of its relative Primrose; for whilst the modest Primrose partially conceals itself by the branches of shrubs, the Cowslip advances more

boldly into the open fields, and decorates the sloping hills with its pendant umbels of fragrant blossoms. The corollas of the Cowslip are often gathered to make a kind of liqueur wine, which is thought to promote sleep. Pope observes—

For want of rest,

Lettuce and Cowslip wine: probatum est.

The author of the celebrated Poem on Cider also recommends this wine, and says,

-Thy little sons

Permit to range the pastures; gladly they
Will mow the Cowslip posies, faintly sweet,
From whence thou artificial wines shalt drain
Of icy taste, that in mid fervors, best
Slack craving thirst, and mitigate the day.

PHILLIPS.

The flowers of the Cowslip are also frequently mixed with tea, to give it a flavour, and sometimes used alone in infusion, as they are thought to possess antispasmodic and anodyne qualities, and to be also mildly corroborant.

Cowslips were formerly esteemed good for pains in the joints and sinews, palsy, &c. and were therefore called Arthritice and Herba Paralysis by medical writers; for the same reason they were called Palsy-worts in English, and d'Herbe à Paralysie by the French. The French peasants call this flower Fleur de coucou, from its blooming at the same time when the cuckow begins to sing;

but its general names in that country are Primevère: and Primerole.

The name of Cowslip seems to have originated from the Saxon word cuslippe, which is thought to have originated from the resemblance which the perfume of these flowers has to the breath of a cow, or from its being so closely pressed away by the lip of the cow in the pastures, where it is considered an injurious weed, that occupies a space which clover or other nutritious plants should fill.

Silk worms will feed upon the leaves of the Cowslip, but their silk is of no value unless they are supplied with the leaves of the mulberry tree.

The leaves were formerly eaten in salad, but the ease by which we now procure lettuce and other exotic salad plants in our kitchen gardens, has banished those of our fields from the table.

OXLIP. Primula elatior.

I know a bank whereon the Wild Thyme blows,
Where Oxlip, and the nodding Violet grows.

SHAKSPEARE.

THE Oxlip is so named from being a larger kind of Cowslip, and it appears to be the offspring of the Primrose impregnated by the Cowslip. Like the mother plant, it seeks the thicket and the hedge-rows, being seldom found in the open fields. It also assimilates with the Primrose in scent, but its umbellate flower-stalk proclaims it also a child of the Cowslip. It is from this plant we seem to have obtained, through cultivation, that beautiful kindred flower the Polyanthos. The Oxlip is by no means so common as the Primrose or the Cowslip; it loves a clayey soil, and deserves a more frequent situation beneath the rose bushes of the garden than it generally occupies. Clumps of Oxlips are great ornaments to the shrubbery, and particularly so

Till riper months the perfect year disclose,
And Flora cries exulting 66 See my Rose !"

MRS. BARBAULD.

NARCISSUS. Narcissus.

Natural Order Spathacea. Narcissi, Juss. A Genus of the Hexandria Monogynia Class.

THIS beautiful family of flowering bulbs, so celebrated by the ancient poets, under the name of Narcissus, we shall notice in the order of their flowering, commencing with the species distinguished by the name of

DAFFODIL.

When early Primroses appear,

And vales are deck'd with Daffodils,

I hail the new reviving year,

And soothing hope my bosom fills.

WILLIAMS.

This is one of the flowers which the daughter of

Ceres was gathering when she was seized by Pluto.

Here, while young Proserpine, among the maids,

Diverts herself in these delicious shades;
While, like a child, with busy speed and care
She gathers lilies here, and vi'lets there :