The Natural Hybrid between the Cowslip & Oxlip. \ 63 
due partly no doubt to the common difference in habitat of the two 
species—the Oxlip living in the woods in England, and the Cowslip 
as a rule in meadows, but more probably to the difference in their 
times of flowering, the Oxlip usually being in full flower and getting 
over when the Cowslip is coming into blossom. On the Continent 
both species are often found freely intermixed 1 and this is also the 
case in the woods of the outlying district near Great Livermere, 
where the plant which forms the subject of this note was found. 
This small outlier to the north of Bury contains at least two 
localities where Oxlips may be found. In one,—an overgrown swamp 
at the edge of a lake,—there are only Oxlips, and in the other,—a 
neighbouring wood on a gentle slope,—Primroses occupy the 
higher southern end, and also grow on the outskirts; whilst the 
northern lower portion is filled with Oxlips and Cowslips and 
numerous Primrose x Oxlip hybrids. It was in this wood that a 
single old plant of the Oxlip x Cowslip hybrid was found by the 
side of a broad path, and it was strikingly different from the Oxlips 
growing round it. The hybrid was discovered on the 26th of April, 
1906, and had about half the flowers in the umbel expanded, whilst 
the Oxlips in the same locality were fully open. In its somewhat 
later flowering period the hybrid appears to be intermediate between 
the two parents. The leaves are firm and stiff on long petioles and 
are somewhat stiffly curved, which causes the lamina to lie either 
on the surface of the ground, or parallel to the surface (PI. V., 
Fig. 1.) This character reminds one of the habit of the Cowslip, 2 
as does also the obovate-oblong lamina, which is narrower than that 
of the Oxlip and longer than that of the Cowslip (PI. V., Figs. 2 
and 3) ; the serration of the margin is also intermediate in character 
between Oxlip and Cowslip. The upper surface of the lamina 
shews a velvety pile of short hairs like the Cowslip, but the hairs 
are longer than in that species, and, with regard to the under 
surface, it more nearly approaches the Oxlip. 
The inflorescence characters are of considerable interest. In 
the Cowslip the scape bearing the umbel is stout, rather fleshy, and 
easily flexible (of white-buff colour), and covered with a short 
velvety pubescence (PI. V., Fig. 3). In the Oxlip the scape is rather 
thin and wiry, stiff and erect, pale-green in colour, and covered with 
a tomentum of rather woolly hairs (Fig. 2). The hybrid shews the 
characteristic Oxlip scape, with a velvety tomentum and green 
colour (Fig. 1). The flowers of the umbel are pendulous, after the 
1 Kernel’. Oester. Bot. Zcitsch. XV., p. SO. 
2 In the Oxlip the leaves tend to be erect. 
