188 



facts, sufficient data might in time be gained to enable botanists to arrive at some just 

 conclusion as to the merits of the individuals in question. The furtherance of this 

 design is the object I have in view in writing this letter ; the immediate subject of 

 which is an account of the conditions under which I have found Primula elatior grow- 

 ing, and which, in my opinion, bear much on the question of its right to be considered 

 as a distinct species, or as a hybrid production between P. veris and P. vulgaris. The 

 only locality in which I have chanced to find P. elatior, has been at Chinham, near 

 Basingstoke, Hants, where I have found it in tolerable abundance for several succes- 

 sive years. The meadow in which it grows is, as most of the meadows in our " wood- 

 lands " are, surrounded either by hedgerows or coppices, which distribution of wood 

 and meadow is peculiarly favourable for the hybridization of such plants as P. veris 

 and P. vulgaris ; the former growing in abundance in the open meadows, and the lat- 

 ter in equal profusion in the hedgerows &c., while the two species intermix, as might 

 be expected, along the border of the field, in which situation the oxlip is found, not 

 extending into the meadow with the cowslip, nor into the wood with the primrose, 

 which it might be expected occasionally to do, were it a distinct plant. Having found 

 the oxlip under the conditions above mentioned, I have for some time considered it in 

 my own mind as a hybrid production ; being however aware that it is unsafe to draw 

 conclusions from a solitary instance, I send this communication to your journal, in 

 the hope that some of your correspondents may be induced to detail any circum- 

 stances under which the plant may have occurred to them, with a view to the 

 settlement of the question. In the same situation I have not unfrequently met with 

 the variety which has both the single and the manyflowered stalks on the same indi- 

 vidual. — Robt. Southey Hill ; Teddington, February 21, 1842. 



126. Seasons of Crocus nudijlorus. Miss Worsley was probably correct in suppos- 

 ing that the longer-leaved Crocuses in Nottingham meadows, were plants of Crocus 

 nudiflorus, (Phytol. 167). The leaves of that species appear above the ground in 

 winter, and are in perfection about March or April, lasting some time longer. They 

 are thus much forwarder in their growth than are those of C. vernus, at the usual time 

 of flowering for the latter species. The root (or, technically, the cormus, not root) of 

 C. nudiflorus appears to be naturally less than that of C. vernus, and it would neces- 

 sarily be small in the early part of the year, when the new bulb was forming. It is 

 well known to every botanical physiologist (though I have had to explain this to each 

 of three gardeners successively in my service, who injured the flowering of the plants 

 through ignorance of the fact) that the Crocus forms an entirely new cormus every year ; 

 the new one growing at the bases of the leaves, and within the pale sheaths that envelope 

 the lower parts of the leaves. The position of the new coiinus is immediately above 

 the old one, which gradually withers away, and finally drops ofi" in the shape of a flat 

 plate or scale from the base of the new one. It is stated, indeed, in Mr. Francis's 

 recently published ' Grammar of Botany,' that the new cormus is developed under- 

 neath the old one ; but this is impossible physiologically, as the slightest reflection 

 must convince any botanist at all conversant with the laws of vegetable development. 

 Should this paragraph be printed in ' The Phytologist ' for April, it may be suggested 

 to any young botanical readers, to pull up a common crocus, and examine the half- 

 grown new, and the half-withered old cormus. The former will be found uppermost, 

 and its position at the bases of the leaves will illustrate the ordinary formation of the 

 stems of Monocotyledonous plants ; the crocus " root," as it is commonly called, be- 



