164 
On the Species of the Genus Primula in Essex. 
* 
thought it desirable to inquire further into the matter. 
1 have therefore taken considerable trouble to corroborate 
and add to Mr. Darwin’s somewhat brief remarks on this 
subject, with results which will be best seen in the following 
paragraphs. I have invariably counted my seeds, which, as 
Mr. Darwin admits, is a vastly more correct method than 
that which he himself, through want of time, adopted, namely, 
neighing them. In most cases I have approximated any 
remaining decimal to the nearest whole number. My first 
observation was made on June 13th, 1882, when I procured 
a number of capsules from wild Primroses, and, selecting six 
of the finest of each, counted their seeds, though still green. 
The results, which are given in Table V., show that the s. 
produced more seed than the 1. in the proportion of 100 to 82. 
On April 27tli I marked 10 long-styled and 10 short-styled 
Primrose plants growing together in a ditch at Chignal, and 
gathered the unripe capsules at the end of June. The result 
of counting their seed is given in Table VI. A considerable 
number of the flowers had, as usual, produced no seed, 
but whether these were mostly s. or mostly 1. I kept, un¬ 
fortunately, no account. The average fertility of all the 
flowers of both forms which produced any seed is compared 
in Table VII., from which the much greater fertility of the s. 
may be seen. 
It will be observed that the four highest numbers for the s. 
.are 79, 87, 87, and 89 ; and the four highest numbers for the 
1. are 67, 71, 75, and 75, the highest of the latter being lower 
by 4 than the lowest of the former ; also that the four lowest 
numbers for the s. are 4, 5, 9, and 11; and the four lowest 
numbers for the 1. are 9, 16, 17, and 18, the four latter num¬ 
bers in this case being (with one exception) higher than the 
four former numbers. It is noticeable that each long-styled 
plant did not produce half so many umbels as the short-styled 
ones—hence the greater fertility of the latter, as the number 
of seeds per capsule was almost equal in both forms. 
On June 29tli, 1882, I obtained from near Saffron Walden 
the umbels off 27 plants of Primula elatior (15 long- and 12 
short-styled). Many of the plants had already burst some or 
