•108 
THE COWSLIP AND PRIMROSE. 
remember to have seen, from a pinch of seed, 
Primroses, Polyanthuses, Cowslips, Oxlips, in 
all their leading single varieties and peculiari- 
ties. We had only the word of one person, 
who might have been careless, that all the 
seed was from one plant ; but the following 
paper is more authentic than our own experi- 
ence, inasmuch as we did not see the seed 
gathered, and could not of our own knowledge, 
say positively that it was so: nevertheless we 
believed the party on whose authority it was 
stated to be so, and we look upon the follow- 
ing as a very confirmatory incident : — 
"the cowslip and primrose. 
" While the botanists of this country were 
still imperfectly acquainted with the true 
Primula elatior (of Jacquin), and were apply- 
ing that name to varieties of the Primula 
vulgaris, I called the attention of the Botani- 
cal Society to one of those varieties which 
differed from the ordinary form of P. vulgaris, 
not only by having the umbel of flowers raised 
above the leaves on an elongated scape (a va- 
riation of character not rare in P. vulgaris), 
but also by approaching nearer towards P. 
veris in the size and colour of its flowers, the 
pubescence and other characters. This is the 
variety which is entered in the London Cata- 
logue, under the name of Primula vulgaris, 
var. intermedia, and which has been alluded 
to in the pages of the 'Phytologist' on differ- 
ent occasions (Phytol. i. pp. 9, 232, 1002), 
under the name of the ' Claygate Oxlip.' It has 
also been distributed by the Botanical Society, 
under the name of ' Oxlip, No. 2,' in contrast 
with other forms of Primulas which are desig- 
nated ' Oxlips' also. 
"A wild root of this Claygate Oxlip was 
removed to my garden in the spring of 1841. 
Neither in that year, nor during the three 
succeeding years, did I observe any seedlings 
about the plant. In the summer of 1843, I 
saved some of the seed, all from the one plant, 
in order to ascertain whether it would germi- 
nate. This seed was sown in a flower-pot, in 
the spring of 1844, and kept well watered. 
Numerous plants thus raised, were removed to 
the open ground in the autumn of 1844. On 
the 2d of May, 1845, there were eighty-eight 
of these plants alive ; seventy of them then 
being in flower. Several were in no wise 
distinguishable from the common primrose ; 
some few were perfect cowslips ; the greater 
number being intermediate varieties, which 
might fairly be said to connect the cowslips 
and primroses, step by step, so gradually did 
these varieties pass one to the other. On 
throwing them into groups, to correspond 
with the arrangement given in the ' London 
Catalogue of British Plants,' I obtained the 
following numerical results : — 
True cowslips (Primula veris) 4. 
Cowslips passing to oxlips (Primula veris, var. 
major) 5 
Oxlips (P. vulgaris, var. intermedia) ... 23 
Caulescent primroses (P. vulgaris, var. cau- 
lescens) ]g 
True primroses (P. vulgaris) 20 
Plants not bearing flowers 18 
" The Claygate Oxlip, the parent plant, was 
growing in my kitchen garden, in which 
neither cowslip nor primrose was grown in 
1843. Nor was it easy to conceive the parent 
plant fertilized from either of the two species, 
unless through the agency of bees. Under the 
circumstances of the experiment, though not 
impossible, I think it highly improbable, that 
the seed of any other Primula than the one 
plant, could have been in the flower-pot. When 
the young plants were removed to the open 
ground, they were set in four different places, 
in order to try them in dissimilar soils and 
situations. Among those placed most in the 
shade there were no ' cowslips,' or ' cowslips 
passing to oxlips.' This circumstance might 
be attributable to the paucity of plants so 
placed : the cowslips bearing a small propor- 
tion among the plants placed more in the sun. 
The conclusion appears unavoidable to me, 
that a variety of the primrose gave origin at 
the same time to cowslips, to primroses, and 
to many varieties of these two reputed species. 
All the flowers had the colours of the wild 
cowslip or primrose, or intermediate tints ; 
and in other respects, they kept to the charac- 
ters of the wild plants, without sporting into 
the monstrosities of calyx or corolla, which 
are so frequently seen in the garden Pri- 
mulas. 
"It will be observed of this experiment, that 
the first change from P. vulgaris was made 
(so to write) by the hand of Nature ; the 
parent stock of my mixed assemblage having 
been a wild variety (as I suppose) of the 
primrose. In the experiment of the Rev. W. 
Herbert, somewhat similar results are said to 
have been produced by sowing the seeds of a 
' red cowslip,' — query, an oxlip ? In record- 
ing his own experiment, it is stated by the 
Rev. J. S. Hen slow that he sowed the seeds 
of ' some cowslips' which were growing in his 
garden, and that these produced varieties 
intermediate between the cowslip and prim- 
rose, with one ' perfect primrose.' Remark- 
ably enough, no cowslip appears to have been 
produced from the seeds sown by Mr. Henslow; 
and I cannot avoid a still lingering doubt 
whether the seeds may not inadvertently havo 
been taken from plants of the oxlip or caules- 
cent primrose, instead cf the cowslip. More- 
over, it is now desirable to ascertain whether 
the ' Westhoe' oxlips are not referrible to the 
