THE CHIMNEY CAMPANULA. 
409 
Primula elatior of Jacquin, and equally so 
with the garden cowslips from which the 
seeds were collected. In the few following 
remarks, which naturally arise on these expe- 
riments, I assume the accuracy of my own 
experiment, as before reported ; although a 
repetition of it is rendered desirable on ac- 
count of the admitted possibility that a seed or 
seeds of another Primula could have been in 
the soil used in the flower pot. But whence 
the connecting series of varieties in that 
case ? 
" According to the technical idea of a spe- 
cies, which makes it embrace all individual 
examples which have (or might have) de- 
scended from a common progenitor, all my 
plants — whether cowslips, primroses, or varie- 
ties of either — must belong to one single 
species ; and thus we fall back upon the Lin- 
nean notion of one ' Primula veris,' with its 
subordinate varieties of 'elatior' and 'acaulis.' 
This view will scarce find favour in the eyes 
of those botanists who labour under the 
'species-splitting' monomania. The wild 
cowslip and primrose have well-marked cha- 
racters for distinction, and characters which 
are usually very regular and constant. So 
far they are now dissimilar, and more con- 
stantly dissimilar, than are numerous pairs of 
'book-species,' which are unhesitatingly re- 
ceived as really distinct in nature. Unite 
plants so dissimilar and so readily distin- 
guished, as are the cowslip and primrose, — 
and what are we then to say about the frivo- 
lous attempts at species-making among the 
Rubi and Polygona in vogue at present, as 
among the Rosas and Menthas in former 
years ? 
" If we allow the cowslip and primrose to be 
two species, and yet allow that one can pass 
into the other, either directly or through the 
intermediate oxlip, we abandon the definition 
of species, as usually given, and fall into the 
transition-of-species theory, advocated in the 
'Vestiges.' 
" I do not see that we get more clear of the 
difficulty by assuming, without proof thereof, 
that the ' Claygate Oxlip' is a true example of 
hybridity. Do hybrids, if fertile, produce at 
once their own like, the like of each parent, 
and a progeny of intermediate likeness 
also ? At best, the hybrid is only half of either 
species, — and can the half produce the whole ? 
Such an event would assuredly not be ' like 
producing like' through an endless succession 
of descents ? 
"Let a few other cases be adduced, between 
reputed species equally dissimilar, and we 
shall be forced to recast our ideas and defini- 
tion of the term ' species.' It would unavoid- 
ably become arbitrary and conventional ; with 
no more exactness or constancy of application, 
than we can give to the terms 'genus' or 
'order.'" 
Hewett C. "Watson. 
THE CHIMNEY CAMPANULA. 
{Campanula pyramidalis.) 
Few plants are so beautiful when in perfec- 
tion as this old-fashioned favourite. Often 
have we seen it with ten or a dozen long spikes 
of bloom spread out like the sticks of a fan, 
extending four or five feet in width, and form- 
ing that which its vulgar name implies, an 
ornament to hide a fire-place. Its botanical 
name, like thousands of other botanical names, 
is not very appropriate. Campanula pyra- 
midalis implies that it grows like a pyramid, 
whereas the spikes being all long alike, or 
nearly so, form a spreading fan, if trained, 
and a spreading shrub, largest at top, if left 
to itself. This plant is of easy culture, but of 
late years, except in particular localities, it 
has been a good deal neglected. A plant is 
usually obtained, in the first instance, in a pot 
of the size forty-eight, in which it will grow 
for some time; but the first spring it should 
be shifted to a pot size twenty-four, in loam 
and dung, and that of equal portions. The 
draining must be very well secured by using 
crocks one-third up the pot. It may be placed 
upon the same stage as the carnation, or on a 
gravel walk, or other hard place; but, better 
than all, perhaps, to sink it will secure it 
against suffering so much if the watering be 
neglected. If the bloom rise, cut off the stems 
as soon as you can, and keep it growing right 
onward, which the removal of the blooms as 
they appear will greatly promote; by the end 
of the summer the pots will be full of roots, 
the plant a good deal spread, and much pro- 
gress made. Now procure a pot, size sixteen, 
with half turfy loam, and half dung rotted to 
mould, and if it should appear stiffer than it 
should be to let water well through it, add a 
little silver sand to render it more porous. 
Into this pot shift the ball with a few crocks 
at the bottom, but do not disturb those already 
on the ball of earth from the other pot ; place 
the plant rather deep in the pot than other- 
wise, that is to say, have the earth close up to 
the crown of the root or under parts of the 
lower leaves. In September or October, ac- 
cording to the weather, remove the plant into 
a common garden-frame, or pit, or if you have 
neither, have a hand-glass always ready to put 
over it at night, and to keep on in the day- 
time if there be frost; for though this plant is 
hardy in the open ground, except in extraordi- 
nary hard winters, it is more tender in a pot, 
from the danger of the fibres being frozen 
through the aides; not that it would be killed 
