On the Species of the Genus Primula in Essex. 199 
Concerning the Cowslip (P. veris), I have but few remarks 
to make. Most people know it is an inhabitant of open 
places, nearly always growing in meadows or on hedgebanks. 
I have sometimes seen it extending a short way up the rides 
or other open places in woods, but never growing under thick 
cover. It is the latest of the three species to dower. In 
1879 I noted that the majority of plants in Essex opened 
about April 10th ; in 1880 about March 21st; in 1881 about 
April 7th ; while in 1882 they opened about the beginning of 
April, and were over by May 15th. Occasionally it exhibits, 
like the Primrose, a tendency to flower in the autumn. Mr. 
Bennett, in the ‘ Pliytologist,’ records one blossoming in 
November, 1846. I saw one out at Chignal on November 5tli, 
1880, one on March 1st, 1888, and another at Chelmsford on 
January 7th, 1884; while a friend saw one in Wales on 
September 15tli, 1882. The Cowslip seems to vary but 
little, seldom producing those “sports” which appear in 
the Oxlip and Primrose. I have never observed it to 
bear solitary flowers, or to produce leaves in the umbel, or 
a foliated calyx; and the petals seldom vary, except in size 
or colouring. I never heard of white flowers; but red 
ones are sometimes met with, although I have only once seen 
an Essex specimen. This is preserved in H. C. Watson’s 
Herbarium at Kew, and is labelled “Coloured Cowslip with 
limb of corolla flattened, as were others near it, but of the 
usual tint. Near Kelvedon, Essex, 1853, E. Gr. Varenne.” 
The “double-umbel” does not seem to be uncommon, at any 
rate round Chelmsford; I have seen it also in P. farinosa. 
It consists in a small umbel, generally with fewer flowers than 
must be admitted that this fact seems to favour the idea that in spite of 
care small insects may still have found an entrance. In the long-styled 
form the stigma generally almost closes the throat of the corolla-tube, and 
in struggling past it a beetle would most probably rub off its adhering 
pollen-grains; but in the short-styled form, where the stigma is placed 
lower down in the tube, there appears to be a freer passage, and the 
abrasive process would not so certainly take place. Moreover, in the 
short-styled flowers, the anthers being at the top of the tube, the 
beetles, if pollen-eaters, would congregate there, away from the lower- 
placed stigma.— Ed.] 
