Cowslip

Description:Cowslip - a perennial herb with oblong-oval, finely hairy leaves forming a basal rosette, European cowslip has pleasantly sweet-smelling yellow flowers (May-June) marked with orange dots; the flowers grow in a hanging cluster atop an unbranched, leafless flower stalk.
Shakespeare made seven mentions of the cowslip-a flower so beloved by Englishmen that they considered it a favorite of the fairies. European cowslip was held in equal esteem by herbal practitioners. The 17th-century English herbalist Nicholas Culpeper claimed that any woman who used an ointment or the distilled water of cowslip would become more beautiful.
To this day, herbalists make a skin-cleansing lotion from the herb. Cowslip also was once in wide use as a sedative, and herbalists still make a soporific tea from its sweet-smelling yellow flowers, which are said to contain mildly narcotic juices. Over the centuries, the dried flowers and sometimes the rhizomes served as an expectorant, to loosen phlegm in chest colds, and they were formerly recommended in the treatment of arthritis and rheumatism. Cowslip also had a reputation for analgesic and antispasmodic properties.