172 On the Species of the Genus Primula in Essex. 
was considered a rarity. I cannot account for its absence from 
the Dedham district, unless there be no chalk there. It is 
very noticeable that the Cowslip grows abundantly throughout 
the whole district occupied by the Oxlip. It would be inte¬ 
resting if further observations on this species and the last 
could be obtained, so that a plan might be drawn up showing 
their exact distribution in the county. 
The Oxlip (P. elatior , Jacq.) 29 — The statements regarding 
the distribution in England of P. elatior which are usually 
found in botanical books are, I maintain, calculated to mis¬ 
lead, inasmuch as they do not show the fact that this plant is 
confined to one district, in which, however, it grows in 
immense abundance, to the almost entire exclusion of the 
Primrose , which abounds in the immediately surrounding neigli- 
29 The account of the first discovery of P. elatior in Britain may be 
found in the early volumes of the ‘ Phytologist.’ To our distinguished 
Essex naturalist, Henry Doubleday, belongs the honour of having first 
recognised it in this country, he having found it in the meadows beside 
the river at Great Bardfield, at which place, as I have reason to know, 
he frequently visited his first-cousin, the late Bichard Smith. He 
recorded this fact in the ‘Phytologist’ (vol. i., p. 204) on the 20th of 
April, 1842. Nevertheless it is certain that it had been previously 
observed in this country, although not recognised; for in the same 
volume of the ‘Phytologist’ (p. 191) is a notice of a paper read on 
February 10th in the same year before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh 
by the Bev. J. E. Leefe, formerly tutor at Audley End, in which he dis¬ 
cusses the Oxlips found in the woods near that place, and which he says 
do not agree with the figure in the ‘English Botany.’ This, however, is 
a mistake, for it is a curious and interesting fact that in the first edition 
of that work, published as early as 1794, appears a figure which plainly 
and unmistakably represents the true species of Jacquin—not without 
some faults certainly, as the stalk is too thick, the leaves too pointed, and 
the arrangement of the flowers in the umbel not quite correct, probably 
because of its having been drawn from a dried specimen. The figure is, 
however, fairly true to Nature, and appears in the succeeding editions of 
the work. The author says—“ This specimen we received from the 
Bev. Mr. Hemsted,” and it would be interesting to know where this 
gentleman resided. Dr. Broomfield (Phytol., vol. iii., p. 693) believed he 
lived in Essex. It is certain also that Bay must have known the plant, 
residing as he did for years at Black Notley, just on the borders of the 
elatior district, through the very heart of which he must have passed 
on his journeys to and from Cambridge. 
