Cowslip

Cowslip, the popular name of Primula veris, also in some districts known as paigle, one of our favourite spring flowers. It grows throughout Europe and Western Asia, occurring at an elevation of 1,600 feet in Northumberland, often stunted on poor limestone uplands and flourishing on chalk or in stiff clay pastures. It has radical rosettes of obovate leaves with winged petioles, and erect peduncles surmounted by an umbel of short-stalked pendulous flowers. The limb of the yellow corolla is cup-shaped, and bears five orange spots at the throat, as alluded to by Shakespeare in Cymbeline. From the fragrant flowers a wine is prepared.