230 OBSERVATIONS ON THE COWSLIP AND PRIMROSE. 



and my feelings and wishes were in exact accordance to views in tlie 

 foregoing article of yours. I had seen the great effect produced by 

 the culture of the wild and humble pansey, and I felt a vvisli for pro- 

 fessional persons, one of which I am not, to exert their skill upon tliis 

 humble wayfaring flower that expands its brilliant star-like form to 

 our siglit in spring's earliest dawn ; whilst a similar flower, of not so 

 much beauty and delicacy of form, the Corcliorus Japonica, is pro- 

 tected and sheltered against our walls and dwellings. 



There are a number of our wild flowers whicli would well repay the 

 florist's pains, " tlie wherewithal and appliances to boot." Cannot 

 the cowslip, and its congener tiie modest primrose, be made to extend 

 their blooming period ? The small pink crane's bill, with its pleasing- 

 foliage, Avould grace a parterre as well as the dusty footpatli side. 

 There is the Lychnis sylvestris, both varieties having neat and elegant 

 flowers ; and why should they not participate in the civilization of 

 cultivation ? and who more proper in tlie floricultural world than 

 yourself, to take some of these denizens of the " wilds and wastes" 

 under your care and protection ? 



[On all occasions we have much pleasure in meeting the wishes of 

 our correspondents ; but in consequence of our respected friend having, 

 on the occasion he refers to, only recommended tlie Dandelion, and 

 selecting it in preference to so many common, but very beautiful 

 flowering British plants, we did suspect tlie motive. We are glad that 

 now a more general recommendation has been communicated, and we 

 respectfully solicit his further assistance. Dandelion and other plants, 

 whose seeds are transmitted so readily in the air, even to remote places, 

 should not be allowed to perfect seeds, but the heads be removed as 

 soon as the blossom fades. — Conductou.] 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE COWSLIP AND PRIMROSE. 



BY A BRITON. 



I HAVE been much delighted with the insertion of descriptive remarks 

 upon our native (or what are termed British) plants in some of tiie 

 recent Numbers of the Cabinet, and I feel obliged for Mr. Johnstone 

 commencing the subject. In order to assist the object, I i'orward the 

 following particulars, extracted from the " Phytologist," a botanical 

 journal publislied by Mr. John Voorst, Paternoster-row, London, which 

 is well worth procuring. 



" THE COWSLIP AND PRIMKOSE. 



" While the botanists of this country were still imperfectly acquainted 

 with the true Primula elatior (of Jacquin), and were applying that 

 name to varieties of the Primula vulgaris, I called the attention of the 

 Botanical Society to one of those varieties which differed from the 

 ordinary form of P. vulgaris, not only by having the umbel of ffowers 

 raised above the leaves on an elongated scape (a variation of character 

 not rare in P. vulgaris), but also by approaching nearer towards P. 

 veris in the size and colour of its flowers, the pubescence, and other 

 characters. This is the variety which is entered in the London Cata- 



