American Cowslip

AMERICAN COWSLIP, Dodecatheon Meadi

AN American cowslip ought to be like a cowslip, but this flower is more like that of a potato. The comparison cannot degrade the flower, because the flowers of many sorts of potatoes are beautiful in the most proper sense of the term. A very choice Alpine known as Ramondia Pyrenaica comes nearer to the likeness of a potato than the Dodecatheon before us, but it is far removed botanically, and the resemblance is but superficial. But an American cowslip ought also to be like a lettuce, for as much is implied in the generic name; but the resemblance of the leaves to those of a lettuce is less apparent than that of the flowers to those of a potato. It is a primulaceous plant, and therefore comes near to the cowslip in affinities, as it does also in cultural requirements--at least in some degree. It is more of a woodland plant than the cowslip, loving shade and a peaty or leafy soil; but it is not particular, and if once comfortably located will do better left alone than with any possible attentions.

The plant is a native of Virginia and other parts of North America, whence, according to Philip Miller, it was sent by Mr. Banister to Dr. Compton, Bishop of London, in whose garden at Fulham Miller saw it growing in the year 1709. Linnaeus adopted for it a generic name from Pliny, and a specific name in honour of Dr. Mead, a physician of great eminence, son of the Rev. Matthew Mead, a Presbyterian divine, who was minister of Stepney during the government of Oliver Cromwell.