186 On the Species of the Genus Primula in Essex. 
branched. On the 80th of March last I gathered a short- 
styled flower that had four or five short malformed pistils 
growing up out of the ovary. Occasionally in the long-styled 
form it seems to catch among the stamens, and is so stopped 
in its growth. I have also several times seen a single stamen 
of a flower developing into a small petal, as is often the case 
in cultivated Primulas. 
I wish here to repeat that I have always met with the 
varieties 40 * above-described growing in those parts of woods 
recently cut down, and I therefore regard them as due rather 
to stimulation than to any great tendency to vary, which the 
Oxlip in particular possesses. With the next very interesting 
variety of Primula elatior (Jacq.), which I shall mention, the 
case is almost certainly different. It has often been stated, 
and used as an argument for the specific distinctness of the 
True Oxlip, that it never produces single flowers on a stalk or 
pedicel like the Primrose. Mr. H. Doubleday, in first an¬ 
nouncing his discovery of it, writes (Phytol. i. 204)—“ In no 
instance have I seen single-flowered stalks as in the Prim¬ 
rose”; and before a meeting of the London Botanical Society 
(loc. cit. 239) Mr. Edward Doubleday said that his brother 
“ had examined thousands of plants at and near Bardfield, 
and never observed a single instance of a solitary flower 
being thrown up as in the hybrid.” As a fact, I can state 
that these solitary flowers are not uncommon in this species, 
although they have hitherto apparently been unobserved. I 
40 * [We have not ventured to alter Mr. Christy’s diction with respect 
to the use of the word “ variety,” but we think that many of the instances 
recorded by him would be more correctly classed as “aberrations.” We 
submit that the term “variety” should be restricted to those forms which 
are more or less permanent in one locality, and the term “ race ” or “ sub¬ 
species ” to those forms which come true from the seed; while an 
“aberration” or “sport” is a mere temporary condition induced by 
circumstances of changing environment or varying amount of nourish¬ 
ment ; extreme instances, resulting in the abnormal (teratological) 
development of one or more organs, being “monstrosities.” These 
three forms inferior to a “ species ” may thus be arranged in order of 
increasing stability,—aberration, variety, race,—the variety being the 
middle term of the series. Most of Mr. Christy’s “varieties” seem to 
belong to the first category.— Ed.] 
