OBSERVATIONS ON THE COWSLIP AND PRIMROSE. 231 



logue, under the name of Primula vulgaris, vnr. intermedia, and which 

 has been alluded to in the pages of the ' Pliytologist' on difterent occa- 

 sions (Phytol. i. pp. 9, 232, 1002), under the name of the ' Claygate 

 Oxlip.' It lias also been distributed by the Botanical Society, under 

 tiie name of ' Oxlip, No. 2,' in contrast m ith other forms of Primulse 

 which are designated ' Oxlips' also. 



" A wild root of this Claygate Oxlip was removed to my garden in 

 the spring of 1841. Neither in tlmt year, nor during the tliree suc- 

 ceeding years, did I observe any seedlings about the plant. In tlie 

 summer of 1843, I saved some of tlie seed, all from the one plant, in 

 order to ascertain whether it would germinate. This seed was sown in 

 a flower-pot, in the spring of 1844, and kept well watered. Numerous 

 plants thus raised, were removed to the open ground in the autumn of 

 1844. On the 2nd of May, 1845, there were eighty-eight of these 

 plants alive, seventy of them then being in flower. Several were in ijo 

 wise distinguishable from the common primrose ; some few were perfect 

 cowslips ; tiie greater number being intermediate varieties, which miglit 

 fairly be said to connect the cowslips and primroses, step by step, so 

 gradually did these varieties pass one to the otiier. On throwing them 

 into groups, to correspond with the arrangement given in the ' London 

 Catalogue of British Plants,' I obtained tiie following numerical re- 

 sults : — 



True Cowslips (Primula veris) .... 4 

 Cowslips passing to Oxlips (Primula veris, var. 



major) 5 



Oxlips (P. vulgaris, var. intermedia) ... 23 

 Caulescent Primroses (P. vulgaris, var. cau- 



lescens) 18 



True Primroses (P. vulgaris) 20 



Plants not bearing flowers 18 



88 



*' The Claygate Oxlip, the parent plant, was growing in my kitchen 

 garden, in which neither cowslip nor primrose was grown in 1843. Nor 

 was it easy to conceive the parent plant fertilized from either of the 

 two species, unless through the agency of bees. Under tlie circum- 

 stances of the experiment, though not impossible, I think it highly im- 

 probable, that the seed of any other Primula than the one plant, could 

 have been in tlie flower-pot. When the young plants were removed 

 to tiie open ground, tiiey were set in four different places, in order to 

 try tiiem in dissimilar soils and situations. Among those placed most 

 in the shade tiiere were no ' cowslips,' or ' cowslips passing to oxlips.' 

 This circumstance might be attributable to the paucity of plants so 

 jilaced : the cowslips bearing a small proportion among the plants 

 placed more in tiie sun. Tlie conclusion appears unavoidable to me, 

 that a variety of the primrose gave origin at the same time to cowslips, 

 to primroses, and to many varieties of these two reputed species. All 

 the flowers had the colours of the wild cowslip or primrose, or inter- 

 mediate tints ; and in other respects, they kept to the characters of the 

 wild plants, witliout sporting into tiie monstrosities of calyx or corolla, 

 which arc so freipieiitly seen in tiie garden Primulae. 



