72 THE BARDPIELD 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 

 Tables 8 and 12) in the smaller proportion of the il- 

 legitimately 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 ETjgland, see Hewett C. 1858, p. H2. For the Alps, see 



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



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



tinent, see Lecoq, ' G&graph. f Babington's ' Manual of Brit- 



Botanique de I'Burope,' torn. viil. ish Botany,' 1851, p. 258. 



