172 On the Species of the Genus Primula in Essex.
was considered a rarity. I cannot account for its absence from
the Dedham district, unless there he no chalk there. It is
very noticeable that the Cowslip grows abundantly throughout
the whole district occupied by the Oxlip. It would be inte-
resting if further observations on this species and the last
could be obtained, so that a plan might be drawn up showing
their exact distribution in the county.
The Oxlip (P. elatior, Jacq.)29— The statements regarding
the distribution in England of P. elatior which are usually
found in botanical books are, I maintain, calculated to mis-
lead, inasmuch as they do not show the fact that this plant is
confined to one district, in which, however, it grows in
immense abundance, to the almost entire exclusion of the
Primrose, which abounds in the immediately surrounding neigh-
29 The account of the first discovery of P. elatior in Britain may be
found in the early volumes of the 'Phytologist.' To our distinguished
Essex naturalist, Henry Doubleday, belongs the honour of having first
recognised it in this country, he having found it in the meadows beside
the river at Great Bardfield, at which place, as I have reason to know,
he frequently visited his first-cousin, the late Richard Smith. He
recorded this fact in the 'Phytologist' (vol. i., p. 204) on the 20th of
April, 1842. Nevertheless it is certain that it had been previously
observed in this country, although not recognised; for in the same
volume of the 'Phytologist' (p. 191) is a notice of a paper read on
February 10th in the same year before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh
by the Rev. J. E. Leefe, formerly tutor at Audley End, in which he dis-
cusses the Oxlips found in the woods near that place, and which he says
do not agree with the figure in the 'English Botany.' This, however, is
a mistake, for it is a curious and interesting fact that in the first edition
of that work, published as early as 1794, appears a figure which plainly
and unmistakably represents the true species of Jacquin—not without
some faults certainly, as the stalk is too thick, the leaves too pointed, and
the arrangement of the flowers in the umbel not quite correct, probably
because of its having been drawn from a dried specimen. The figure is,
however, fairly true to Nature, and appears in the succeeding editions of
the work. The author says—" This specimen we received from the
Rev. Mr. Hemsted," and it would be interesting to know where this
gentleman resided. Dr. Broomfield (Phytol., vol. iii., p. 693) believed he
lived in Essex. It is certain also that Ray must have known the plant,
residing as he did for years at Black Notley, just on the borders of the
elatior district, through the very heart of which he must have passed
on his journeys to and from Cambridge.