218 



The Clay gate oxli]), 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 the cir- 

 cumstances of the experiment, though not impossible, I think it 

 highly imj^robable, that the seed of any other Primula than the one 

 plant, could have been in the flower-pot. When the young plants 

 were removed to the open ground, they were set in four different 

 ])laccs, in order to try them in dissimilar soils and situations. Among 

 those placed most in the shade there were no " cowslips," or " cow- 

 slips passing to oxlips." This circumstance might be attributable to 

 the paucity of plants so placed : the cowslips bearing a small propor- 

 tion among the plants placed more in the sun. The conclusion ap- 

 pears 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 intermediate tints ; and in other respects, 

 they kept to the characters of the wild plants, without sporting into 

 the monstrosities of calyx or corolla, which are so frequently seen in 

 the garden Primulas. 



It will be observed of this experiment, that the first change from 

 P. vulgaris was made (so to write) by the hand of Nature ; the parent 

 stock of my mixed assemblage having been a wild variety (as I sup- 

 pose) of the primrose. In the experiment of the Rev. W. Herbert, 

 somewhat similar results are said to have been produced by sowing 

 tlie seeds of a " red cowslip," — query, an oxlip .? In recording his 

 own experiment, it is stated by the Rev. J. S. Henslow that he 

 sowed the seeds of " some cowslips " which were growing in his 

 garden, and that these produced varieties intermediate between the 

 cowslip and primrose, with one " perfect primrose." Remarkably 

 enough, no cowslip appears to have been produced from the seeds 

 sown by Mr. Henslow ; and I cannot avoid a still lingering doubt 

 whether the seeds may not inadvertently have been taken from plants 

 of the oxlip or caulescent primrose, instead of the cowslip. More- 

 over, it is now desirable to ascertain whether the " Westhoe" oxlips 

 are not referrible to the Primula elatior of Jacquin, and, equally so 

 with the garden cowslips from which the seeds were collected. In 

 the few following remarks, which naturally arise on these experi- 

 ments, I assume the accuracy of my own experiment, as before 

 reported ; although a repetition of it is rendered desirable on account 

 of the admitted possibility that a seed or seeds of another Primula 



