THE OXLIP, COWSLIP, AND PRIMROSE 149 
banks, brook sides, railway embankments, or meadow-lands. l- 
though it is a flower of the woods, it flourishes wn after the fe 
are cut down ; these are mainly hazels, — ut down 
dozen years, in annual sections so as to preserve rathciont nave ice 
the game. On denuding the woods the pabonit receives an acces- 
sion of air and light which develops the latent life of the plants 
growing therein, and in the year or two following the cutting-down 
there is a glorious carpet of oxlips quite as profuse as are the cow- 
slips and primroses in their respective haunts. The fact that most 
of these woods are preserved for game does not make them easy of 
access, but a respectful request to their ge ih and a promise to 
avoid disturbing the game, generally secu Sa giebitidat to vi visit them 
e have now to notice the relations of the oxlip to the cowslip 
and primrose, be and in the neighbourhood of, its area of occu- 
pation. One fact, in this connection, which forces itself upon the 
attention of the phytologist, is the prevalence of the cowslip all 
over the area, and a still more — fact is the complete absence 
of the primrose from the same area. The only primroses to be cin 
are code cultivated in the gardens of the cottagers, who, w 
asked where they came from, invariably mention some locality ore 
off the oxlip area. On the other hand, where the primroses come 
up to the boundary of the area, an abundance of hybrid forms be- 
there is a striking absence of s bet he the 
cowslip, notwitstanding the sions of the latter all over the 
oxlip area. 
No doubt, as Mr. Miller Christy surmises, the frequency o 
~nnet between the oxlip and the primrose is due to the fact that 
both plants are con ntemporaneous in their periods of flow wering, 
whereas the cowslip is about three weak later than eithae _ But 
one branch has aaveloeed hee the oh mrose, another into the cow- 
slip, a third into the oxlip, and a fourth into the Caucasian cowslip. 
Each of these four besnahial hybridizes with the rest, and they 
have thus produced the large number of forms included in the a 
nities given a 
The sum of art hese considerations, Fogo establishes the 
seieethiaaines that the numerous mock oxli the north of Eng- 
land are not Jacquin’s oxlip, the affinities of which have been the 
subject of this address. 
