F. E. Weiss. 
168 
FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON THE POLLINATION OF 
THE PRIMROSE AND OF THE COWSLIP, 
By F. E. Weiss, D.Sc. 
I N an article which appeared last year in this journal (Vol. II., 
Nos. 4 and 5) I stated as the result of a series of careful 
observations that the primroses, at all events in the part of Shrop¬ 
shire where my observations were made, are fairly regularly visited 
by a number of different insects in fine sunny weather. The fact 
that many observers have been unable to detect such insect 
visitors I attributed to their observations having been made either 
in cold or dull weather, or in exposed and windy situations. For 
even on sunny days I could not observe the usual insect visitors on 
primroses in wind-swept localities, while, at the same time, in 
sheltered positions some larger humble-bees might occasionally be 
met with on the primroses, an d Antliophora, Bombylius and pollen¬ 
gathering Andrenae fairly regularly. These observations and the 
conclusions drawn from them with regard to the cross-pollination 
of the primrose were directly opposed to the views of the 
anonymous author of “ The Primrose and Darwinism,” the late 
Rev. Edward Bell, and in a a recent number of Nature Notes 
(April, 1904), appeared an article by him criticising my conclusions. 
It was with great regret that I read at the end of the article the 
announcement by the Editor of Nature Notes of the untimely death 
of the Rev. Edward Bell through the upsetting of an oil lamp. 
Some of the criticisms referred to I have already answered 
(Nature Notes, June, 1904), but as my original article appeared in 
the New Phytologist I should like to contribute to this journal 
both a correction and some additional observations. 
Through an unfortunate disarrangement in the labels of a 
collection which I consulted for the purpose of identifying the 
insects observed on the primroses, I was led to give the wrong 
specific name to one of them. The Anthophora which I observed 
and collected was Antliophora pilipes and not furcata, which latter 
insect I am told does not appear until later in the season. Except 
for that correction I adhere to the views previously expressed that 
the primroses are not only adapted to the visits of insects but are 
actually cross-pollinated by at least some of the insects which visit 
them. That self-pollination also takes place I have, as previously 
stated, no doubt; but to effect this, some agency is necessary, such 
