62 HYBRID PRIMULAS. Chap. II. 



recorded, which I must doubt, is explicable only on 

 the improbable assumption that the red cowslip was 

 not of pure parentage. With species and varieties 

 of many kinds, when intercrossed, one is sometimes 

 strongly prepotent over the other; and instances are 

 known * of a variety, crossed by another, producing 

 offspring which in certain characters, as in colour, 

 hairiness, &c, have proved identical with the pollen- 

 bearing parent, and quite dissimilar to the mother- 

 plant; but I do not know of any instance of the off- 

 spring of a cross perfectly resembling, in a consider- 

 able number of important characters, the father alone. 

 It is, therefore, very improbable that a pure cowslip 

 crossed by a primrose should ever produce a primrose 

 in appearance pure. Although the facts given by Dr. 

 Herbert and Prof. Henslow are difficult to explain, yet 

 until it can be shown that a cowslip or a primrose, 

 carefully protected from insects, will give birth to at 

 least oxlips, the cases hitherto recorded have little weight 

 in leading us to admit that the cowslip and primrose 

 are varieties of one and the same species. 



Negative evidence is of little value; but the follow- 

 ing facts may be worth giving: — Some cowslips which 

 had been transplanted from the fields into a shrubbery 

 were again transplanted into highly manured land. In 

 the following year they were protected from insects, 

 artificially fertilised, and the seed thus procured was 

 sown in a hotbed. The young plants were afterwards 

 planted out, some in very rich soil, some in stiff poor 

 clay, some in old peat, and some in pots in the green- 

 house; so that these plants, 765 in number, as well as 

 their parents, were subjected to diversified and un- 



* I have given instances in my cation,' ch. xv. 2nd edit. vol. ii. 

 work ' On the Variation of Ani- p. 69. 

 mals and Plants under Domesti- 



