150 On the Species of the Genus Primula in Essex.
elatior, Jacq. (but not of Linne), called by more than one local
name in Essex, as I shall presently show ; and
(3.) The Common Cowslip : Primula veris, Linn.; known
in Essex and various other parts of England as the "Paigle."
I have not thought it necessary to introduce here argu-
ments in favour of the specific distinctness of these three
forms, as Mr. Darwin has so completely thrashed out the
matter, and I most fully agree with his conclusions.3
In addition to these I shall have to speak of three other
forms:—
(a.) The Umbellate Primrose, Primula vulgaris, var. caule-
scens, Babington, which differs from the true primrose in nothing
except that the pedicels are supported on a raised peduncle.4
(b.) The Hybrid Oxlip, Primula veri-vulgaris, which has
frequently been called P. elatior, but from which it is totally
distinct. This includes all the numerous hybrid productions,
bearing flowers in umbels or otherwise, and connecting the
primrose and the cowslip, excepting only the form last men-
tioned as a variety of the former species. According to Dr.
Boswell-Syme, in the 'English Botany' (where it is styled
"P. officinali-vulgaris"), it has been given at different times
and by different authors the following names:—"Primula
elatior"; "P. variabilis"; "P. brevistyla"; "P. intricata";
"P. thomasinii"; and "P. vulgaris, var. β."
(c.) The Hybrid Elatior, Primula elatiori-vulgaris, which,
as I hope shortly to prove, is a hybrid between the true
Jacquin's oxlip and the common primrose. I believe it has pre-
viously been met with on the Continent, but not in England.6
3 'Forms of Flowers,' pp. 60, 70, 71, &c.
4 I have distinguished this from the ordinary variable hybrid oxlip,
which comes next, on the authority of Prof. Boulger; but personally I
have observed little or nothing to lead me to make this distinction, and
I do not think Darwin did so.
5 Now that this form is known to occur in Britain, it will be very
necessary to guard against confusing it with the old "hybrid oxlip"
(P. veri-vulgaris), to which name it is perhaps most rightly entitled,
being both an oxlip and a hybrid; but that name having been already
appropriated, I shall call it the "Hybrid Elatior." I have also some
grounds for believing that P. elatior occasionally hybridises with P. veris
in Essex.