692 



along the Undevcliff at Eastend, Bonchurch, Ventnor, Steephill, &c. 

 Very fine on grassy slopes at Niton, to the westward of that village, 

 everywhere about Thorley, and in various parts of Freshwater. Ge- 

 nerally dispersed on and at the base of the central chalk range, on 

 the downs, and in the woods that partially clothe their slopes, as 

 about Idlecombe, Buccombe, Chillerton, Shorwell, &c, in the greatest 

 plenty. On mainland Hants the cowslip occurs abundantly about 

 Winchester almost everywhere. Frequent about Basingstoke, at 

 Hackwood Park, Maple Durwell,* and common in pastures at Nately, 

 &c. In the north-west of the county at King's Clerc, &c. Var. &. 

 elatior. Limbs of the corolla flat or flattish. P. elatior, With, (not 

 Jacq.). Not uncommon intermixed with a., into which it may be 

 seen so insensibly passing that many individuals appear exactly in- 

 termediate betwixt both forms. Near Brading, and in various places 

 between Newport and Shorwell. At Steephill not unfrequent. Very 

 common in meadows about Thorley. At Swainston ; the late Lady 

 Simeon. Meadow betwixt Nun well New Farm and the down ; fre- 

 quent; Dr. T. Bell Salter. On visiting the field with Dr. S. in May 

 last not a single oxlip could be found amongst thousands of cowslips, 

 which would seem to show that the former is not of equal permanency 

 with the latter. Probably of equal frequency over the county. About 

 Basingstoke, at Chin gh am, &c, where the poor people transplant 

 them into their gardens. The oxlip is occasionally found in copses 

 and meadows with the common primrose, where a cowslip does not 

 grow within miles of the place. In P. veris elatior, the calyx is 

 longer, narrower, with more acute segments than in the cowslip, in 

 which the calyx surrounds the corolla like a loose bag, open at the 

 mouth, and considerably inflated, not closing around the tube as in 

 the oxlip. The flowers of the latter are nearly inodorous, though oc- 

 casionally very sweet scented, and the leaves have not the same con- 

 traction towards the middle, as in the cowslip. 



The oxlip has been thought by many to be a hybrid betwixt the 

 cowslip and primrose, but conceding the point to those who still in- 

 sist on keeping the two last separate, from what we know of the mo- 

 difications to which both are subject, and by which they as it were 

 anastomose in the polyanthus, it is reasonable to conclude that the 

 oxlip is the primary deviation from the cowslip to the primrose form, 

 and an advance half-way from the cowslip to the polyanthus, which 

 last is itself pretty exactly at the point of structural equidistance 



* Pronounced Mapplc Diwcell by the natives. 



