PRIMULA ELATIOR IN BRITAIN. 177 
identical with the * Oxlip " (P. elatior) common on the Continent, 
and much confusion arose therefrom. The matter was not cleared 
up until it was recognized that doth forms occurred in Britain, 
the last-named being, however, confined to a comparatively 
limited area. It is not unfrequently stated * that the “ Common 
(Hybrid) Oxlip " of Britain does not occur upon the Continent ; 
but this is not correct. Not only do Grenier and Godron f, and 
Kerner $, mention it, but I have myself seen specimens. Prob- 
ably, however, it is true that, proportionately to the abundance 
of the two parent species, it is less common there than with us; 
for the two parent species are not only less mixed there than 
here (the Primrose being mainly a plant of the valleys and low- 
lands, while the Cowslip chiefly flourishes in mountain pastures), 
but the distribution of the two over Europe, though wide, is by no 
means the same. Doubtless the mixing of the two in Britain 
(and the consequent greater frequence of hybrids) is due, as 
often stated, to the peculiarly-mixed nature of our insular 
climate, At all events, the “Hybrid Oxlip” and the “True 
Oxlip," though they have a general resemblance one to the other, 
are totally distinct, and no careful botanist with the two before 
m in a fresh state could possibly confuse them, even at a 
glance, 
ITI. PRIMULA ELATIOR. 
I come now to speak of the “ True," “ Bardfield,” or “ Jac- 
quin’s ” Oxlip (P. elatior, Jacq.). 
"n can, I think, be little or no doubt that this is the plant 
eati; m Linnæus intended his name “ Primula veris [var.] 
flat (*1 $ and which he describes as having the limb of the corolla 
"" He corollarwm plano”); but this is not the generally- 
amined) pinion. Linneus’s own herbarium (which I have ex- 
it i throws no light upon the matter. Certainly, however, 
* the Primula elatior of Jacquin (1778) || and of all later 
* E.g., ' English Botany, ed. IIT. vol. vii. (1867) p. 137. 
t gore de France,’ vol. ii. (1850), p. 448. 
+ Vesterr. bot. Zeit., 1875, p. 77. 
$ . Species Plantarum, ed, II. (1764), p. 204. 
| * Miscellanea Austriaca,’ vol. i. (1778), p. 158. 
