222 The Romance of Wild Flowers 
Primrose (P. farinosa) has leaves smooth above and 
covered on the under-side with a meal-like excretion 
of wax; the flowers are lilac, with a yellow mouth’to 
the tube. 
The Scottish Primrose (P. scotvca) is similar, but 
smaller, the flowers blue-purple, and the plant oc- 
curring only in Orkney, Caithness, and Sutherland ; 
whilst the Bird’s-eye’s only claim to be regarded as 
Scottish is its occurrence at Peebles, then from the 
Border it extends southwards as far as Yorkshire and 
Lancashire. The small size of the Scottish Primrose 
must be considered in connection with its loss of the 
dimorphic condition which marks the other native 
species: it is not so strongly insistent upon, cross- 
fertilisation, yet those who have studied it tell us that 
it is chiefly so fertilised. : 
Before leaving the Primroses, we may note that 
pollen-collecting bees get no good from their visits 
to the long-styled flowers. The stigma blocks the 
entrance, and the anthers are far below; bué with 
the short-styled form the pollen les most accessibly 
at the mouth of the corolla-tube, and in getting at 
it the bees often effect self-fertilisation by shaking 
some of the pollen down upon the short - styled 
stigma. Hermann Miiller speaking of the behaviour 
of a pollen-collecting bee (Andrenq) on the short-styled 
Oxlip, says: “It holds the anthers in the mouth of 
the flower in its fore-feet, bites the pollen loose with 
its mandibles, and sweeps it with the tarsal brushes of 
the mid-legs into the collecting-hairs of the hind-legs. 
It visits the long-styled form also, but flies away 
immediately ; not, however, without performing 
cross-fertilisation in the momentary visit. I have 
