On the Species of the Genus Primula in Essex. 179
are indiscriminately Cowslips, the P. veris being invariably
'Pagil.'"
It is not a little strange that nearly all continental books
of Botany written in French describe the True Oxlip as
"inodore," and this same statement that it is scentless has
crept into many English works. It must, however, be in-
correct, since Mons. Caviezel, of Pontresina, has assured me
that the species which grows in the Engadine is scented; and
I am satisfied, from what I have seen of it there, that this
species is identical with ours, which is strongly scented.37
It is still more strange that in England the True Oxlip grows
in different situations from those which it inhabits on the
Continent. There it generally grows in the open, in moun-
tainous districts, flourishing in the meadows, on roadside
banks, moist alpine pastures, river-banks, and similar places;
while here it grows almost exclusively in woods; but, as
Prof. Boulger has remarked to me, the habitats of some con-
tinental animals and plants are often different in character
from those of the same species with us. The quantity which
grows in the open in Essex hardly bears any comparison with
that growing under cover, but, wherever the plant grows, it al-
ways likes a very damp situation, often almost flourishing in a
bog. The Essex localities in which P. elatior grows in the
open are almost all situated at the S.E. end of the area above
described; and these localities, so far as I am aware, agree
very closely in their nature, being all (with one exception)
low, moist and often swampy meadows composed of blackish,
alluvial soil lying in a narrow strip along the banks of various
streams and rivers. I have seen it growing in such situations
pretty abundantly at Lindsell, sparingly at Little Saling, and
abundantly on both sides of the River Pant, at Bardfield, for
about half a mile between the bridge and Beslyn's; it also
grows in similar situations beside brooks at Stambourne,
Ridgwell, and Wethersfield; and Ed. Forster (Phytol., i.,
p. 974) records having met with it plentifully in "a wet,
37 Prof. Boulger remarks that this may possibly be true of some con-
tinental localities. He has been informed that Gymnadenia conopsea is
scentless at Box Hill, Surrey.