June 1, 1867.] 



HAIIDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-GO S SIP. 



137 



and green calyx), is a great favourite in our cottage 

 gardens, and goes by the name of " King Charles 

 in the Oak." It is a very showy plant. With 

 respect to the form of primula intermediate between 

 the primrose and the cowslip, when first I began 

 botanizing, I, of course, labelled it "Primula 

 elatior," but I learned after awhile that it was not 

 the true oxlip (which plant, however, I have never 

 had the good fortune to see), and for a long time I 

 have looked upon the cowslip (Primula veris), the 

 primrose (P. vulgaris), and the spurious oxlip (P. 

 intermedia, if I may so call it), as varieties of one 

 species, but I feel quite convinced now that what I 

 venture to name intermedia is a true hybrid between 

 the other two species. My reasons for arriving 

 at this conclusion are that I have found it in 

 every imaginable stage of development between the 

 cowslip and the primrose. Amongst cowslips, 

 which, however, are not very common with us, I 

 have sometimes found individual plants having the 

 flowers cup-shaped like a cowslip, deep yellow, 

 with an orange centre ; cowslip-scented, sometimes 

 drooping, but sometimes erect, and considerably 

 larger than ordinary cowslip flowers. These, cer- 

 tainly, may be a development of the cowslip, and 

 not hybrids at all ; but then the development goes 

 on, and I find oxlips with the flowers still deep- 

 yellow in colour, but flat |like a primrose (some- 

 times slightly cupped), and almost as large as a 

 shilling. And, again, I find oxlips having the 

 flowers quite like a primrose in colour, shape, and 

 size ; but a specimen of this kind now before me 

 has the unmistakable coicslip odour very strongly, 

 while a yellow one, also before me, has very little 

 perfume at all, and what it has is more like 

 primrose than cowslip. I have no particular notes 

 on the subject, but I am under the impression 

 that I have frequently seen oxlips amongst cow- 

 slips where the latter were plentiful, and I fancy 

 that Professor Buckman will remember and cor- 

 roborate the fact that we found oxlips amongst 

 cowslips in a small wood at Ewen, near Cirencester, 

 many years ago, and that there were sometimes 

 on the same root oxlips and cowslips, sometimes 

 oxlips and primroses, but not primroses and cow- 

 slips. I take it that the hybrid will most resemble 

 the cowslip when a cowslip has produced the seed, 

 and that such a plant will occasionally send up 

 umbels of both oxlips and cowslips, but that the 

 hybrid will be most like a primrose when the 

 primrose has been the female parent, and that it 

 will then have a tendency to send up umbels of 

 oxlip and single-flowered scapes from the same 

 root. "What I have written does not prove anything, 

 but the subject seems worthy of investigation, and 

 I hope during the next few days to begin some 

 experiments by impregnating cowslips with primrose 

 pollen, and primroses with cowslip pollen, and saving 

 the seed, and if others would do the same, w hen 



opportunity occurs (it will be too late this year 

 when this is read), I fancy we should arrive at some 

 valuable and certainly interesting results. — Robert 

 Holland. 



Tiie Oxlip. — The view entertained by your cor- 

 respondent "B." in reference to the consanguinity 

 of this plant with the primrose, rather than with 

 the cowslip, requires confirmation, and his observa- 

 tion of the facts on which that view is based 

 assuredly does not agree with my own. In this dis- 

 trict of East Sussex, where the soil is cloggy, the 

 primrose flourishes most luxuriantly, but I have 

 never once met with the oxlip here, nor even 

 the cowslip; and I have heard aged labourers 

 say they have never seen the oxlip growing here, 

 but it is common enough on the calcareous soil 

 of the South Downs. In Dorsetshire the 

 cowslip is very abundant, and I have often found 

 the oxlip growing with them. The primrose does 

 not grow so luxuriantly there as it does in this soil. 

 Some years ago I sowed some garden polyanthus 

 seed which produced cowslips, oxlips, and polyan- 

 thuses, but no primroses.— S. 



Bust and Smut in India. — At our request, 

 Dr. Stewart, Officiating Conservator of Porests at 

 Lahore, has just forwarded to us specimens of rust 

 and smut on Indian Graminacese. These include 

 the common smut {Ustilago segetuni) upon Cgmbo- 

 pogon Iwaruncusa, upon wheat, and upon a species 

 of Saccharum and of Eragrostis, in the latter mixed 

 with a kind of Macrosporium, with a singularly hard 

 compact form on barley from the Jhelum district ; 

 also the glume rust, Triclwbasis glumarum, on wheat. 

 Together with these was a species of Tulostoma from 

 Montgomery District. It is allied to Tulostoma 

 mammosum, but appears to differ in the depression 

 around the stipe at its junction with the globose 

 head, at which point the head easily separates from 

 the stem. Undoubtedly the common red rust and 

 the corn mildew occur on grain in Northern India, 

 but of this we have at present no evidence. We 

 wish that some of our Indian correspondents would 

 send us the ergot on rice which is said to occur in 

 Bengal. 



Winged Seeds. — In the seed of Lophospermitm 

 erubescens, in which the thin membranous wing 

 surrounds the entire circumference of the seed, the 

 cells, with their spiral fibres, are well shown. The 

 most remarkable specimen of wing, however, and 

 one in which this tissue is largely developed, occurs 

 in a plant from the East Indies (Calosanthcs Indica), 

 the wing being more than an inch in length on each 

 side of the seed. — Quelcetfs "Lectures on His- 

 tology" 



Bitter-vetch Cluster Cups (JEcidium Orobi, 

 D. C.).— A correspondent has sent us this rare 

 parasite from Sheffield. 



