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ˈoxlip Forms: 1 oxanslyppe, -sloppe, 6 oxelip(pe, oxslip, 7– oxlip. [OE. oxanslyppe wk. fem., f. oxan genit. sing. of oxa, ox + slyppe slimy or viscous dropping: see cowslip.] The name of a flowering herb: applied (at least from 16th c.) to a plant intermediate in appearance between the Cowslip (Primula veris) and Primrose (P. vulgaris), agreeing with the former in having a common scape bearing an umbel of many flowers, but in the colour and form of the individual flowers resembling the latter; now ascertained to be a natural hybrid between the cowslip and primrose; by some 17–18th c. writers extended to include the cultivated varieties of many colours commonly comprised under the name Polyanthus. b. By recent botanists appropriated to Primula elatior (Jacq.), a species having the appearance of a luxuriant pale-flowered cowslip, found in Europe from Gothland southward, and in Britain only in Essex and parts of the adjacent counties. The latter, discovered at Bardsfield in Essex in 1842, by Mr. H. Doubleday, is sometimes distinguished as the Bardfield or True Oxlip; in Essex it is included, with the hybrid oxlip, under the name ‘Cowslip’, the cowslip of English literature being there called ‘Paigle’.
c1000Sax. Leechd. II. 32 Wiþ slie, oxanslyppan niþe⁓wearde, & alor rinde wylle on buteran. Ibid. III. 30 ᵹenim..ᵹearwan & wudubindan leaf, & cuslyppan & oxsanslyppan. 1568Turner Herbal iii. 80 Coweslippe is named in..Latin herba paralysis, and there are two kinds of them,..the one is called in the West contre of some a Cowislip, and the other an Oxislip, and they are both called in Cambridgeshyre Pagles. 1578Lyte Dodoens i. lxxxiii. 122 Verbasculum album, Oxelippe [Figure]. Ibid. 123 The Oxelip..is very like to the Cowslippe, sauing that his leaues be greater and larger, and his floures be of a pale or faynt yellow colour, almost white and without savour. Ibid., The petie Mulleyns are called..in English Cowslippes, Primeroses, & Oxelips. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. ii. i. 250, I know a banke where the wilde time blowes, Where Oxslips and the nodding Violet growes. 1611― Wint. T. iv. iv. 125 Pale Prime-roses,..bold Oxlips, and The Crowne Imperiall: Lillies of all kinds. 1686Plot Staffordsh. 350 Having improved the seed of Primula veris or common wild primrose to that height, that it has produced the Primula polyanthos or Oxlip. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 70/2 The Oxlip Cowslip is like those of the field, but of several red colours. 1776Withering Brit. Plants (1796) II. 233 Mr. Curtis tells us, that by cultivation it [primrose] may be brought to throw up a long common fruit-stalk like the Oxlip; which countenances the idea of the latter being a variety of this. 1830Tennyson Talking Oak 107 As cowslip unto oxlip is, So seems she to the boy. 1884Miller Plant-n., Ox-lip, also applied to P[rimula] variabilis and P. vulgaris caulescens. b.1842Gard. Chron. 12 Mar., The German Oxlip, the true P. elatior,..which is not yet known to be a native of England. 1842H. Doubleday in Phytologist I. 204, I send you some oxlips from Bardfield in Essex which..appear to me to be identical with the true Primula elatior of Linnæus and the German botanists... Pagels or cowslips also occur in the neighbourhood. 1844Ibid. I. 975 The Bardfield Oxlip. 1897Pall Mall G. 19 May 3/2 If you are a bit of a botanist you will notice that all through Zeeland the oxlip takes the place of cowslip and primrose, a form intermediate between both, stalked like a cowslip, but with larger flowers. 1902Speaker 23 Aug. 555/2 In East Anglia the true Oxlip is found. |