Y2 THE BARDFIELD OXLIP. CHAP. II. 



Primula elatior, Jacq., or the Bardfield Oxlip, is 

 found in England only in two or three of the eastern 

 counties. On the Continent it has a somewhat dif- 

 ferent range from that of the cowslip and primrose; 

 and it inhabits some districts where neither of these 

 species live.* In general appearance it differs so much 

 from the common oxlip, that no one accustomed to 

 see both forms in the living state could afterwards 

 confound them; but there is scarcely more than a 

 single character by which they can be distinctly de- 

 fined, namely, their linear-oblong capsules equalling the 

 calyx in length, f The capsules when mature differ 

 conspicuously, owing to their length, from those of the 

 cowslip and primrose. . With respect to the fertility 

 of the two forms when these are united in the four 

 possible methods, they behave like the other hetero- 

 styled species of the genus, but differ somewhat (see 

 Table 8 and 12) in the smaller proportion of the illegi- 

 timately fertilised flowers which set capsules. That 

 P. elatior is not a hybrid is certain, for when the two 

 forms were legitimately united they yielded the large 

 average of 47.1 seeds, and when illegitimately united 

 35.5 per capsule; whereas, of the four possible unions 

 (Table 14) between the two forms of the common ox- 

 lip which we know to be a hybrid, one alone yielded 

 any seed; and in this case the average number was 

 only 11.6 per capsule. Moreover I could not detect 

 a single bad pollen-grain in the anthers of the short- 

 styled P. elatior; whilst in two short-styled plants of 

 the common oxlip all the grains were bad, as were 

 a large majority in a third plant. As the common 



* For England, see Hewett C. 1858, p. 142. For the Alps, see 



Watson, 'Cybele Britannica,' vol. 'Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist.,' vol. 



ii., 1849, p. 292. For the Con- ix., 1842, pp. 156 and 515. 



tinent, see Lecoq, ' Geograph. f Babington's ' Manual of Brit- 



Botaniquede 1'Europe,' torn, viii., ish Botany,' 1851, p. 258. 



