On the Species of the Genus Primula in Essex. 187
have made several precise observations on these flowers, and
can state:—(a) That they are in every respect true Oxlip-
flowers, and not hybrids; (6) that they only appear at the
very commencement of the flowering-season, and are soon
over; (e) that they are always borne on a separate part of
the plant, namely, a short thick off-shoot which joins the
root just below the ordinary crown of leaves; this shoot very
often bears a normal umbel also, but seldom any leaves;
(d) they always appear on plants which bear umbels as
well; (e) these umbels always flower latest; (f) I have never
observed solitary flowers to produce seed, although they may
do so ; (g) they are subject to much variation and monstrosity.
To the foregoing statements I have observed no exceptions.
It seems to me that there can be little doubt but that these
flowers are borne in what may be termed a sessile umbel;
otherwise I can see no reason for their being borne on a
separate portion of the root, although the circumstance of
their early flowering seems to indicate that they may be a
relic of an original acaulescent mode of flowering. Prof.
Boulger, who has kindly favoured me with his opinion and
has also laid the matter before the Scientific Committee
of the Royal Horticultural Society, writes:—" I think
your surmise (that these flowers are borne in sessile umbels)
is altogether correct. I notice that they are on what,
from their slenderness, &c, are obviously elongated pedicels,
not peduncles; that they spring from one part of the
rhizome, apparently a front portion or late development,
and that they are apparently all in the axil of one foliage-
leaf, although with each pedicel in the axil of a very narrow
leaf, which is to all intents and purposes an involucral bract.
They thus seem to me an umbel with long pedicels and
suppressed peduncular internode, as if the species were
acquiring the character of the Primrose. Query : Is there
any advantage in its so doing ? Mr. Henslow remarks that,
in cultivation, the tendency is towards caulescence."
I first noticed these flowers on March 31, 1880, in Dow Wood,
Lindsell, and have seen them every season since; but never
so numerous as this spring (1883), because I did not discover