190 



SHORT NOTES. 



On the Fertilization of the Primrose {Primula vulgaris, 

 Huds.). — In an article in the ' Journal of the Liunean Society ' (vol. x. 

 Botany, pp. 437-4-54), "On the Specific Difference between Primula 

 veris, Br. FL, P. viilgaiis, Br. Fl., and P. elaiior, Jacq.," etc., the dis- 

 tinguished author, Mr. Darwin, when treating of the less obvious dif- 

 ferences between the Cowslip and the Primrose, observes, " The 

 Cowslip is habitually visited during the day by humble bees (viz. 

 Bomhus muscorum and hortorum, and perhaps by other species), and 

 at night by moths, as I have seen Avith the Cucullia. The Primrose is. 

 never visited (and I speak after many years' observation) by the larger 

 humble bees, and only rarely by smaller kinds ; hence its fertilization de- 

 pends almost exclusively on moths." The conclusion the writer arrives 

 at, that the fertilization of the Primrose depends almost exclusively on 

 moths, is, I venture to think, far from correct; indeed, observations made 

 in the neighbourhood of Plymouth prove it to be so, — so far, at least, as 

 that locality is concerned. I give the following facts in support of 

 this assertion : — We have here a bee {AnthopJiora acervorum) that 

 often visits the Primrose ; and only during the past week I have seen 

 several of these insects on its flowers, and on Thursday last (April 

 7th) caught two in the act of gathering from them. There is also 

 a very small bee {Atidrena Gwynana) that seems to get a vast quan- 

 tity of pollen from Primroses, for I have seen it on those flowers 

 with the posterior tibiae loaded with golden masses. The brimstone 

 butterfly {Gonepteryx Rhamni~) also visits them, as I have witnessed 

 this spring. We have another insect that seems to obtain most of its 

 food from Primroses at this season of the year, visiting them perhaps 

 more frequently than either of the bees or the butterfly ; it is a dip- 

 terous one {Bombylius medius). Repeatedly have I watched it in- 

 serting its long proboscis into the tube of the corolla, much in the 

 manner of the gayer humming-bird hawk-moth {Macroglossa stellata- 

 rum) when gathering from a Honeysuckle-bush or a bed of Verbenas. 

 On the 7th of this month I saw three of these insects hovering over 

 Primroses, and caught one of them as it was probing a flower. I am 

 pleased to find Mr. Shuckard, in his ' British Bees,' to some extent 

 supporting my opinion that the fertilization of the Primrose does not 

 depend almost exclusively on moths, for he says, when treating of 



