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composed of more numerous flowers, whence the specific name ; and 

 the plant is usually of a paler colour and more upright growth. It 

 has been stated, as a further distinction, that the L. multiflorum is 

 annual, producing no " barren shoots." On examining this grass in 

 sown fields, I have found a very large proportion of the plants corre- 

 sponding with the alleged characters of the species ; but I have also 

 found among them examples in exception to each one of the distinc- 

 tive characters in turn; some having the awns very small or obsolete; 

 some having fewer flowers in the spikelets than L. perenne ; some 

 producing barren shoots, &c. About Midsummer, 1843, I transplant- 

 ed a root from a sown field of L. multiflorum, into a small flower-pot ; 

 cutting down the flower-stems, and supplying the plant rather spar- 

 ingly with water. It grew rapidly, soon filled the flower-pot with its 

 roots, and again produced flowering-stems in September and October. 

 The flowers were now less numerous than usual in the spikelets of L. 

 perenne, and were scarcely awned at all. This same plant lived 

 through the winter in the flower-pot, and was transplanted into the 

 open ground in spring. In the summer of 1844, it grew into a strong 

 tuft, producing many flowering stems, with numerous flowers in the 

 spikelets, bearing very short awns ; also many barren shoots ; the co- 

 lour of the whole plant being equally deep green as that of L. perenne. 

 It was scarcely distinguishable fi-om L. perenne, except by its short 

 awns — if this can be deemed a distinction, for L. perenne is occasion- 

 ally awned in Britain. My observations and experiments upon this 

 grass were intended to try the constancy of its distinctive characters ; 

 and thus the case is left short of full transition, although the changes 

 went so far as to give a strong presumption in favour of the possibi- 

 lity of transition. 



Primula veris (Linn.) and Primula vulgaris [Huds.) — In my second 

 paper on the present subject, I cited some examples of two reputed 

 species being so connected by intermediate varieties, as to (muse dif- 

 ficulty in tracing any clear line of distinction between them. One of 

 these examples was found in the cowslip and primrose, which are closely 

 connected by intermediate varieties, usually called oxlips. These va- 

 rieties occur under such circumstances as create a presumption that 

 they are the offspring of one or both of the two species mentioned. I 

 have lately proved by direct experiment, that the seeds of an oxlip, 

 all taken from the same plant, at the same time, and sown together, 

 will produce a mingled assemblage of cowslips, oxlips and primroses; 

 the oxlips forming a series of intermediate forms, passing into the 

 cowslips at one extremity of the series, and into the primroses at the 



