108 WILD FLOWERS OF 



But suppose a morning of unclouded brightness, 

 the woods vocal with the thrush and the blackbird, 

 and all nature rejoicing in the genial rays of the sun. 

 With such a " bespeak" from the weather-office, we 

 can " look-out" with some pleasure and alacrity, and 

 gaining a beautiful and secluded locality, notice lei- 

 surely the gems of creation before us. We have 

 reached a little valley among the hills, where emerging 

 from rocky woods a brawling streamlet urges its fro- 

 ward course, splashing and murmuring over the round 

 stones in its bed, and then quietly stealing into green 

 meadows beneath a rough veteran of the forest over- 

 turned by the winter's storm, that now serves a 

 temporary purpose as a rustic foot-bridge. Looking 

 up into a vista of the wood, the Primroses now appear 

 in their greatest abundance and perfection. What 

 picture can be more pleasing at this season than to 

 behold a tribe of little ones all busied in the wood, 

 each with their hands buried in primroses. On a close 

 inspection curious varieties are often found, as the 

 umbelled and liver-coloured Primroses, and occasion- 

 ally the Oxlip (P. elatiors), occurs.* Prom the latter 



* From experiments conducted by Mr. H. C. WATSON, Mr. SIDEBOTHAM, 

 and other botanists, the details of which appear in the Phytologist, it now 

 appears pretty clear that the Oxlip, as commonly understood, can only be 

 considered an intermediate link between the Primrose and Cowslip, pro- 

 ducible by seed from either. Also, that seed from " the Oxlip" will in its 

 torn produce not only oxlips, but cowslips and primroses. I have often 

 observed that when the coppice has been cut down in a wood, that nume- 

 rous oxlips have appeared there, that must have been seedlings benefiting 

 by the new light thrown upon the spot. There is indeed another plant 

 called the Bardfield Oxlip (Primula Jacquinii), found in Essex, which 

 was thought to be truly distinct as a species, but even this has been re- 

 cently shown to produce P. vufgaris from its seeds. Nature, indeed, 

 laughs at man's systematizing efforts, for when the Primrose exhibits 

 scapescent flowers it simulates the Oxlip, and is often so called ; while the 

 cowslip luxuriates also into a large-flowered variety. Real hybrids be- 

 tween the Cowslip and Primrose may also exist, as in England they often 



