147 



My copy for 1847 being in the hands of a binder, I am unable to refer 

 to the exact pages, or to recall precisely what was there stated. But 

 the full results of the two experiments are now before me, and can be 

 recorded. 



In 1846 I marked a plant of an ordinary cowslip (Primula veris), 

 also one of the " Claygate Oxlip " (P. vulgaris var. intermedia of 

 Lond. Cat.), both then in flower in my garden, and sufficiently near 

 other species and varieties to be hybridized by bees, if hybridization 

 is thus effected among these plants. The seeds of these two plants, 

 so marked, were afterwards sown in flower-pots, which had been first 

 carefully washed clean, and then filled with earth in which it was a 

 moral certainty that no seed of any Primula could be lurking. The 

 young plants were subsequently removed from the flower-pots, and 

 planted out in two separate rows, in loamy soil, and distant a few 

 inches from each other. Some of the young plants flowered in 1847, 

 as recorded in the ' Phytologist ;' others, not until this present year. 

 The results of the two experiments are now before me, as follows : — 



First. — From the seeds of the Claygate Oxlip (P. vulgaris var. 

 intermedia) fifteen plants are now living, and fourteen of these are 

 flowering. Scarcely two of these are quite alike, the varieties gradu- 

 ally passing one from another into the two extremes of cowslip and 

 primrose. Grouped according to the varieties given in the ' London 

 Catalogue,' they will stand thus : — 



4 Primula vulgaris (or primroses), 2 of them red-flowered, and 

 all producing one or more umbels elevated on common scapes, 

 in addition to the single-flowered pedicels, arising from the 

 sessile umbels, as in the wild primroses. 



5 Primula vulgaris var. caulescens, all the flowers being in 

 umbels on elevated common scapes, 2 of the plants producing 

 dingy reddish flowers. 



2 Primula vulgaris var. intermedia, or plants very closely re- 

 sembling the parent plant. 

 2 Primula veris, with the teeth of the calyx more acute than 

 usual in wild cowslips, but still quite different from the subu- 

 late calyx-teeth of the true primrose. 

 1 Plant without flowers, but a primrose by the form and pubes- 

 cence of the leaves. 

 Second. — From the seeds of the true cowslip (P. veris) there are 

 sixteen plants, all yellow-flowered ; besides one red cowslip, which, 

 owing to an accidental misplacement, cannot be positively included 

 as one of the lot, although most probably such. Among these plants. 



