186 On the Species of the Genus Primula in Essex.
branched. On the 30th of March last I gathered a short-
styled flower that had four or five short malformed pistils
growing up out of the ovary. Occasionally in the long-styled
form it seems to catch among the stamens, and is so stopped
in its growth. I have also several times seen a single stamen
of a flower developing into a small petal, as is often the case
in cultivated Primulas.
I wish here to repeat that I have always met with the
varieties40* above-described growing in those parts of woods
recently cut down, and I therefore regard them as due rather
to stimulation than to any great tendency to vary, which the
Oxlip in particular possesses. With the next very interesting
variety of Primula elatior (Jacq.), which I shall mention, the
case is almost certainly different. It has often been stated,
and used as an argument for the specific distinctness of the
True Oxlip, that it never produces single flowers on a stalk or
pedicel like the Primrose. Mr. H. Doubleday, in first an-
nouncing his discovery of it, writes (Phytol. i. 204)—"In no
instance have I seen single-flowered stalks as in the Prim-
rose" ; and before a meeting of the London Botanical Society
(loc. cit. 239) Mr. Edward Doubleday said that his brother
"had examined thousands of plants at and near Bardfield,
and never observed a single instance of a solitary flower
being thrown up as in the hybrid." As a fact, I can state
that these solitary flowers are not uncommon in this species,
although they have hitherto apparently been unobserved. I
40* [We have not ventured to alter Mr. Christy's diction with respect
to the use of the word "variety," but we think that many of the instances
recorded by him would be more correctly classed as "aberrations." We
submit that the term "variety" should be restricted to those forms which
are more or less permanent in one locality, and the term "race" or "sub-
species" to those forms which come true from the seed; while an
"aberration" or "sport" is a mere temporary condition induced by
circumstances of changing environment or varying amount of nourish-
ment; extreme instances, resulting in the abnormal (teratological)
development of one or more organs, being "monstrosities." These
three forms inferior to a "species" may thus be arranged in order of
increasing stability,—aberration, variety, race,—the variety being the
middle term of the series. Most of Mr. Christy's "varieties" seem to
belong to the first category.—Ed.]