id 
PRIMULA ELATIOR IN BRITAIN. 183 
in Britain, though not incorrect so far as they go, are quite 
misleading. They state but half the truth, which is always 
almost as deceptive aud unsatisfactory as an actual misstatement. 
Any one reading them would naturally infer that the True Oxlip 
(Primula elatior, Jacq.) occurs more or less casually and spo- 
radically, and in no remarkable abundance, at various spots 
throughout the Eastern Counties of England. 
The real facts of the ease, as shown in the following sections, 
are that the species in question 
(a) occupies a definite and very-sharply-defined area; that, 
(b) within that area, it everywhere grows—at least, in all 
places suited to its needs—in immense abundance. Not 
less remarkable is the fact that, 
(c) while the Primrose grows abundantly all round the area 
occupied by the Oxlip, it is entirely absent from that area; 
but that, 
(d) along the mutual boundary-line which separates the two 
species, they produce hybrid forms in great abundance. On 
the other hand, 
(e) the Cowslip grows abundantly, not only all around but 
throughout the area occupied by the Oxlip ; but 
(f) the two very rarely hybridize. 
I will proceed to discuss these six points in their due order. 
V. The Area occupied by the Oxlip in Britain. 
T have personally, and with considerable precision, traced the 
boundaries of this “ Area,” which lies mainly in the adjacent 
portions of the counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Cambridge, but 
extends also just beyond the county boundaries of Hertfordshire 
and Huntingdonshire, while there is at least one outlying locality 
7^ the northern part of Suffolk and another in the southern part 
M Norfolk, Although divided into two “Districts” (as I may call 
l yan Eastern and a Western—and although there are at 
n two outlying localities, we may, I think (for reasons to be 
stated hereafter), speak of the Oxlip as occupying a single Area. 
M aking, first, the larger, or Eastern, District, and starting from 
tom 7" of its most north-westerly extension (a mile or so south 
Westy. ‘Sham, in Suffolk), the boundary-line proceeds south- 
id ard to Dalham and then, after entering Cambridgeshire, 
Dallina less westerly, through Wood-Ditton, Stetchworth, and 
gham, to Westley-Waterless and Brinkley, where it turns 
