170 On the Species of the Genus Primula in Essex.
To this I have but little to add, except that the Primrose
certainly grows in a great many localities other than those
specially mentioned. I have met with it in most parts of the
county, except at Walden and Bardfield, and the district
lying between those places. I have never seen it more
abundant than on the railway-bank and in hedgerows between
Sudbury and Chappell, and in the district to the N.W. of
Chelmsford, round Chignal, Mashbury, and the Easters, as
far as Pleshey. North of that place and about Dunmow it
grows more sparingly, but is still not rare—in fact it seems
to be a common plant throughout the county, except in the
district to the S. and S.E. of Walden, extending, perhaps, as
far as Great Bardfield, in which parish it does not grow, as I
know from several sources. Henry Doubleday says so;28
I have never met with it there, and various friends and
relatives residing in the parish have informed me that it does
not exist there. However, I know that it grows in the
parishes of Great and Little Saling, Stebbing, Shalford, and
Lindsell, which adjoin Great Bardfield on the S., E., and S.E.
It will be observed that the tract of land from which the
Primrose is absent is that district in which, of all others,
P. elatior abounds, and this is both a strange and interesting
fact. The valley of the brook Slade, and the Cam seem to
mark the western boundary of the Oxlip in the Walden
district. On the western side of this the Primrose grows
pretty commonly, and is well distributed; thus I have met
with it at Clavering, Langley Lawn Wood, Great and Little
Chishall, Heydon, Chrishall, Elmdon, Wenden Lofts, near
Elmdon Lea and Littlebury Green, Strethall, Great and
Little Chesterford, and in the Slade Valley. In the valley of
this small brook, which, as I have before stated, forms the
western boundary of the P. elatior area, a curious mixture of
Primulas is to be met with. If we go up it for about a mile
from Saffron Walden we shall see two woods opposite one
another on either slope. Entering that on the right hand,
(Grim's Ditch Wood), we shall find, just on the edge, plenty of
Primroses, a few Cowslips, with some Hybrid Oxlips, and an
28 'Phytologist,' vol. i., p. 204,