MK. C. DAHWIK ON SPECIFIC DIPFEUENCKS IN PEIMULA. 449 



intercrossed, as there is no trustworthy evidence that either plant, 

 when uncrossed, has given birth to the other plant or to any 

 intermediate form, and as the intermediate forms which are often 

 found in a state of nature have been shown to be more or less 

 sterile hybrids of the first or second generation, Ave must for the 

 future look at the Cowslip and Primrose as good and true species. 



PiUMULA ELATIOR, Jacq., or Bardfield Oxlip. 



This Primula is found in England only in two or three of the 

 eastern counties ; and on the continent it has a somewhat different 

 range from that of the Cowslip and Primrose. It inhabits districts 

 where neither of these species live *- In general appearance it 

 differs so much from the common Oxlip, that no one accustomed 

 to see both in the living state would afterwards confound them ; 

 but there is scarcely more than a single character by which they 

 can be distinctly defined, namely the linear-oblong capsule equal- 

 ling the calyx in length f. The capsules when mature, owing to 

 their length, differ conspicuously from those of the Cowslip and 

 Primrose. Plants propagated by seed in a garden during twenty- 

 five years have kept constant, excepting that in some cases the 

 flowers varied a little in tint and size J. Nevertheless Mr. 

 Hewett C. Watson and Dr. Bromfield state § that " exceptional 

 instances to all the characters, taken singly, by which this plant is 

 distinguished from P. pulgaris and veris " may be occasionally 

 detected ; it remains to be discovered whether these intermediate 

 forms are not hybrids between P. ejatior and veris^ which often 

 grow together. With respect to differences in function, both the 

 long- and short-styled forms of P. datior are more sterile when 

 fertilized by their own pollen than the corresponding forms of the 

 Cowslip and Primrose when similarly fertilized. 



Mr. H. Doubleday, who I believe first called attention to the 

 existence of the Bardfield Oxlip in England, kindly sent me several 

 livdng plants, w^hich I subjected to trial for the sake of ascertain- 

 ing whether they differed in their reproductive power from the 

 common Oxlip. I did not think it worth the time and labour to 



see 



Geograph 



(1858) p. 142. For the Alps, see Ann. and Mag. Nat Hist. vol. ix. (1842) 

 pp. 1.56 & 515. 



t Babington's ' Manual of British Botany,' 1851, p. 258. 



X Sec Mr. H. Doubleday in the * Gardeners' Chronicle/ 1867, p. 435, also 

 Mr. \V. Marshall, ibid. p. 462. 



§ Phytologistj vol. i. p. 1001, and vol. iii. p. 695. 



