I was interested to note that a survey of the distribution in Britain of the common cowslip, Primula veris, is to be undertake jointly by the National Trust and Plantlife. The object is to establish where in the country this plant has suffered serious diminution, and how it is recovering from the onslaught of the last half-century.
There is ample evidence that changes in farming practice have made it progressively harder for cowslips to survive. After the advent of the neolithic farming revolution the plant spread from woodland glades and the fringes of forests to occupy grazed open areas. Widespread ploughing of grass and intensive poisoning with herbicides have had their adverse effects.
Another drain on the cowslip population has come from wholesale collection by humans for diverse purposes, mainly for wine-making and for ceremonial decorations on Whit Sunday and Mayday, when the wild plant has always been preferred to any cultivated variety. It is noteworthy that in some churchyards where cowslips have taken refuge there are orange varieties. And there used to be a strange belief in Cheshire that if a cowslip was planted upside-down it would produce a red bloom. In many places, cowslip wine, a fairly potent beverage, was advocated for jaundice and measles.
John Pechey, in his 'English herbal of physical plants' (1694) calls the plant herba paralysis, and comments: "The leaves and flowers are used amongst pot-herbs in sallets, and are very agreeable to the head and nerves." The juice, he remarks, "takes off spots and wrinkles from the face, and other vices of the skin."
There is some confusion over the derivation of the name "cowslip". It is generally believed to come from cu-sloppe, meaning cow-droppings, since the flower thrives on the grazing grounds of cattle and sheep. An alternative derivation is from the Anglo-Saxon cuslippe, which means "breath of a cow". I think, in view of the fragrance of the flower, that the last derivation is to be preferred as more apt.