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PRIMULA ELATIOR IN BRITAIN. 199 
Alps. Several other Continental writers have also noted the 
occurrence of this hy brid. 
It thus appears that each of our three South-British species 
of the genus Primula enters, with greater or less freedom, into 
hybrid unions with each of the other two, thus producing six 
different forms—three species and three hybrids. It is an ex- 
traordinary fact that, around the margin of the Oxlip-Area (but, 
of course, nowhere else), it is no unusual thing to find five of 
these six forms growing in one wood, while the sixth and last 
(the rare P. elatior x veris) may occasionally be met with. It is 
not, therefore, altogether surprising that confusion should have 
arisen in the minds of botanists as to the specific distinctness 
and the distribution in Britain of our British members of the 
genus. I assert, however, that no careful botanist who sees 
specimens in a fresh state need ever be in doubt as to which of 
the six forms discussed above he may have before him—except, 
perhaps, when P. acaulis x elatior and P. acaulis x veris are con- 
cerned, for these two forms sometimes approach one another 
somewhat closely. This cannot be said of specimens when in a 
dried state, and I defy anyone to distinguish with certainty 
between the various forms when in this condition ; for the distin- 
guishing characters, though fairly obvious, are undeniably slight, 
and are largely obliterated in the process of drying. 
XI. Variation of the Oxlip in Britain. 
That the plant known in Britain as P. elatior is identical with 
"hat which passes under the same name on the Continent (where 
; am familiar with it, having collected it in Switzerland) admits, 
anim of no doubt. Yet there is one point in whieh the two 
= remarkably . On the Continent the plant is known 
s, biting mainly wet Alpine pastures. In this country, 
It corte hand, it inhabits woods almost as exclusively. 
in low N Y does, in this country, sometimes grow in the open 
. l88y meadows beside streams; but the quantity so 
roots Ne initesimally small compared with that growing in 
the plant carly, if not quite, all the British localities 1n which 
edge of a m the open are, I believe, situated close to the 
near the hs Oxlip-Area, and most of them that I have seen lie 
Oxlip- A» eads of the deep indentations in the margin of the 
ea caused by the river-valleys, especially that of the 
