Notes on the Common 'Primrose. 



351 



Locality. Woods and hedges. P. Fl. March, April. Area, 

 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 



Distributed throughout all the Districts. A tree of considerable 

 size and picturesque form ; the large branches spreading from near 

 the base, unless when drawn up in its youth. Leaves nearly sessile, 

 broadly ovate, bordered with double teeth, and very unequal or 

 oblique at the base, usually rough on the upper side and downy 

 underneath. Flowers reddish, in dense clusters, surrounded by 

 brownish bracts which soon fall off; the pedicels scarcely as long as 

 the perianth. Fruit green and leaf-like, broadly ovate or orbicular 

 6 to 9 lines long, with a small notch at the top ; the seed suspended 

 in a small cavity near the centre of the fruit. There are several 

 handsome specimens of this species in the county. In Spye Park 

 are some remarkable fine old Wych Elms with trunks of great 

 circumference ; also in the neighbourhood of Devizes and Rowde- 

 ford house, with branches weeping gracefully to the ground. The 

 wood of this species is of very inferior quality to that of U. suberosa 

 and its varieties. The Wiltshire Elms require to be very carefully 

 studied by some one who can observe the species in different states 

 of growth, and also ascertain the quality of their timber. Let it 

 always be remembered, however, that it is not from dried specimens 

 that such a genus as this can be understood. 1 



IJotes on ttje Common ^tmm* 



{PRIMULA VULGARIS, HUDS.) 

 (See page 325J 

 By Thomas Bruges Flowek, M.E.C.S., F.L.S., &c, &o. 



|p^HE common Primrose [Primula vulgaris, Huds.) belongs to 

 iPtflf the natural order Primulacese, or Primrose tribe, by which 

 is meant that in all essential particulars of the structure of its 

 flower, as well as in its general habit and properties, it resembles 

 the individuals of an assemblage which have the Primula for 

 their type; in Linnseus's artificial system it is placed in the 



1 For a very full account of the varieties of this and the other species see 

 Loudon's Arboretum Brit. 



