powerful on the stigma of a short-styled specimen than its 

 own, and vice versa : hence if the stigma in a rose centre gets 

 sprinkled with pollen, both from its own anthers and from 

 those of a pin centre, the latter will be most probably the 

 effectual agent ; and if the stigma in a pin centre receives 

 pollen by any means from its own anthers (which is unlikely) 

 or froin another pin centre, the latter only will take effect. 

 Hence a cross fertilization goes on, and this you see by agency 

 of insects. It may not have struck you, could not in fact, 

 unless some of these facts were known to you, that insects 

 and flowers are mutually necessary to each other, and neither 

 could exist without the other. I remember being muck struck 

 with this remark when I heard it from the lips of Mr. Bates, 

 the traveller of the Amazons, during a short walk on the 

 Warren. "If insects perish" he said "flowers must neces- 

 sarily perish too." The flower yields its nectar to the insect, 

 and the insect in return assists in perpetuating the flower. 



Such are a few of the mysteries enveloped in a Primrose 

 blossom. As my remarks have already reached a greater 

 length than I intended, I must say nothing about the Cowslip, 

 though I should like, if I am not tiring you, to say a few words 

 about the Oxlip. I may astonish you, but I do not think I 

 shall make a rash assertion, if I say that, in all probability, 

 none here present have seen the true Oxlip. It grows in 

 Cambridgeshire and perhaps one or two other localities. 

 What we call the Oxlip is, as you know, a set of several 

 flowers like Primroses growing on one stem like Cowslip 

 flowers. I remarked a few minutes ago that the stem of the 

 Primrose was arrested in its growth, that if you cut through 

 the root just below the ground you would see that the pedicels 

 all sprang from one circle, and that if we could only imagine 

 the stem elevated, carrying this circle with it, we should have 

 our Oxlip. It has been generally set down as a hybrid be- 

 tween a Cowslip and a Primrose, but I am quite of the opinion 

 of my friend, Mr. Britten, (to whom I am in fact indebted for 

 some of the thoughts I have placed before you,) that it is but 

 a developed Primrose. He has found both single flowered 

 and many flowered stems growing on the same root. It is a 

 question, however, by no means settled, whether there is not 

 in addition a true intermediate form between a Cowslip and a 

 Primrose. There is plenty of work before us all in the matter 



