in Wales^199 for poulticing a sore throat and in Cumbria^200 as an ingredient in
an infusion helping to produce an inhalant.
In Ireland the focus has mainly been on the plant’s ability as a diuretic to
deal with kidney trouble (Wicklow,^201 Kilkenny^202 ) and gravel stones (county
unspecified^203 ). It has also been employed there against jaundice in Cavan,^204
asthma in Carlow^205 (together with broom), measles in Monaghan^206 (to-
gether with nettles) and as an antidote to pain in Wexford.^207
Primulaceae
Primula vulgaris Hudson 9
primrose
western and southern Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa; introduced
into North America, New Zealand
Perhaps because it is the commoner of the two and much the more generally
distributed throughout the British Isles, the primrose,Primula vulgaris,has
had three uses which particularly stand out in the folk records, whereas the
cowslip (P. v e r i s) has had only one. One of those three uses is predominantly
English: made into an ointment to heal cuts, bruises, chapped hands or chil-
blains (Devon,^208 Dorset,^209 Hampshire,^210 Cumbria,^211 the Highlands^212 )
or, combined with bramble tops, to clear up spots and sores on the face
(Dorset^213 ). That sounds like the ointment smeared on ringworm in Suf-
folk,^214 while a record from the Outer Hebridean island of Bernera of an
application of the leaves to cure persistent boils on the legs^215 perhaps belongs
in this category, too. Another group of uses, less prominent and more scat-
tered, presumably comes from the plant’s reputation as a relaxant. In Devon,
drinking the juice has been the way to restore your voice should you lose it,
and eating the raw leaves a remedy for arthritis.^216 In Suffolk a primrose snuff
has been taken for migraine^217 (and in Cardiganshire, too, if a use with the
leaves of betony recorded in an old household recipe book^218 was really a folk
one). Doubtless for this reason, too, drinking the juice has been reckoned in
Wales a sound treatment for madness^219 and a decoction of the leaves
believed by many to help a failing memory.^220
Except for records from Suffolk^221 and the Highlands^222 a primrose salve
for burns appears to be exclusively Irish, while Ireland is evidently also alone
in having valued the plant for jaundice. These are the other two main uses of
the plant overall and the records for both are, curiously, all from that coun-
try’s central belt. In Ireland, as a remedy for burns, the plant is combined
124 Vaccinium myrtillus