On the Species of the Genus Primula in Essex. 
189 
occasions I have seen them so much developed that the five 
leaves have been each 1^- in. long, all the inner floral organs 
remaining very small and aborted at the bottom of the cup thus 
formed by the calyx. These solitary flowers often appear on 
Fig. 4.— Plant of P. elatior, showing peculiarities usually connected 
with “solitary” flowers, viz .—the “root-branch”; solitary flowers with 
and without foliated calyx, associated with an umbel bearing leaves. An 
umbel from the main root is shown in bud. 
the same plant, both with an ordinary and a foliated calyx. 
Whether this peculiarity is due to stimulation or not I cannot 
say, but it is certainly very strange that it never, under any 
circumstances, appears on flowers when growing in an umbel. 
Possibly the variety which has leaves in the umbel may 
answer to it in normal flowers ; and this seems the more 
likely, as I have not unffequently noticed that the umbels 
