On the Species of the Genus Primula in Essex. 179 
are indiscriminately Cowslips, the P. veris being invariably 
‘ Pagil.’ ” 
It is not a little strange that nearly all continental books 
of Botany written in French describe the True Oxlip as 
“ inodoref and this same statement that it is scentless has 
crept into many English works. It must, however, be in¬ 
correct, since Mons. Caviezel, of Pontresina, has assured me 
that the species which grows in the Engadine is scented ; and 
I am satisfied, from what I have seen of it there, that this 
species is identical with ours, which is strongly scented. 37 
It is still more strange that in England the True Oxlip grows 
in different situations from those which it inhabits on the 
Continent. There it generally grows in the open , in moun¬ 
tainous districts, flourishing in the meadows, on roadside 
banks, moist alpine pastures, river-banks, and similar places; 
while here it grows almost exclusively in woods; but, as 
Prof. Boulger has remarked to me, the habitats of some con¬ 
tinental animals and plants are often different in character 
from those of the same species with us. The quantity which 
grows in the open in Essex hardly bears any comparison with 
that growing under cover, but, wherever the plant grows, it al¬ 
ways likes a very damp situation, often almost flourishing in a 
bog. The Essex localities in which P. elatior grows in the 
open are almost all situated at the S.E. end of the area above 
described; and these localities, so far as I am aware, agree 
very closely in their nature, being all (with one exception) 
low, moist and often swampy meadows composed of blackish, 
alluvial soil lying in a narrow strip along the banks of various 
streams and rivers. I have seen it growing in such situations 
pretty abundantly at Lindsell, sparingly at Little Saling, and 
abundantly on both sides of the Biver Pant, at Bardfield, for 
about half a mile between the bridge and Beslyn’s ; it also 
grows in similar situations beside brooks at Stambourne, 
Bidgwell, and Wethersfield; and Ed. Forster (Phytol., i., 
p. 974) records having met with it plentifully in “ a wet, 
3 ' Prof. Boulger remarks that this may possibly be true of some con¬ 
tinental localities. He has been informed that Gymnadenia conopsea is 
scentless at Box Hill, Surrey. 
