expression which implies scanty fare. At a time when
the duty on salt made the condiment so dear that it was scarce in a
household, the persons at table were fain to point their Potatoes at
the salt cellar, and thus to cheat their imaginations. Carlyle asks in
_Sartor Resartus_ about "an unknown condiment named 'point,' into
the meaning of which I have vainly enquired; the victuals _potato
and point_ not appearing in any European cookery book whatever."

German ladies, at their five o'clock tea, indulge in Potato talk
(_Kartoffel gesprach_) about table dainties, and the methods of
cooking them. Men likewise, from the four quarters of the globe, in
the days of our childhood, were given to hold similar domestic
conclaves, when:--

"Mr. East made a feast,
Mr. North laid the cloth,
Mr. West brought his best,
Mr. South burnt his mouth
Eating a cold Potato."

With pleasant skill of poetic alliteration, Sidney Smith wrote in
ordering how to mix a sallet:--

"Two large Potatoes passed through kitchen sieve,
Unwonted softness to a salad give."

And Sir Thomas Overbury wittily said about a dolt who took credit
for the merits of his ancestors: "Like the Potato, all that was good
about him was underground."

PRIMROSE.

The Common Primrose (_Primula veris_) is the most widely known
of our English wild flowers, and appears in the Spring as its earliest
herald.

[448] It gets its name from the Latin _primus_, first, being named in
old books and M.S. _Pryme rolles_, and in the _Grete Herball_,
Primet, as shortened from Primprint.

In North Devon it is styled the Butter Rose, and in the Eastern
counties it is named (in common with the Cowslip) Paigle, Peagle,
Pegyll, and Palsy plant.

Medicinally also it possesses similar curative attributes, though in a
lesser degree, to those of the Cowslip. Both the root and the flowers
contain a volatile oil, and "primulin" which is identical with
mannite: whilst the acrid principle is "saponin." Alfred Austin, Poet
Laureate, teaches to "make healing salve with early Primroses."

Pliny speaks of the Primrose as almost a panacea: _In aqua potam
omnibus morbis mederi tradunt_. An infusion of the flowers has
been always thought excellent against nervous disorders of the
hysterical sort. It should be made with from five to ten parts of the
petals to one hundred of water. "Primrose tea" says Gerard, "drunk
in the month of May, is famous for curing th