On the Species of the Genus Primula in Essex. 191
the lower ones ; so that the former have often done flowering,
and their ovaries have already swelled to the size of a
No. 1 shot,42 while the latter are scarcely open. The top
flowers, too, are, I believe, the most fertile, often producing
seed under difficulties when the rest are barren.
VII.—General Observations upon the Natural History of
the Three Essex Species of Primula.
The three species differ materially in the situations which
they inhabit, the time of year at which they flower, and the
insects by which they are fertilized.
The Primrose prefers to grow in woods,—often thickly
grown-up ones,—but is also very commonly seen in ditches,
on banks, or sometimes out among the grass of meadows
in moist shady places. When the woods in which it grows
are cut down, I have never noticed that it is at all unusually
stimulated in growth (as is so commonly the case with the
Oxlip), unless the form designated the Umbellate Primrose
be attributable to this cause. The districts in Essex in-
habited by the Primrose are often not those inhabited by the
Cowslip, and on the Continent the species seem to occupy
altogether different regions.
Many authors state that the flowers even of the pure
Primrose are borne in a "sessile umbel," or one without a
peduncle or scape; but it seems to me that with pure plants
this is seldom obvious; and Mr. Darwin states (' Forms of
Flowers,' p. 70) that "no trace of it can be found in the pure
Primrose." It is difficult to determine the season in which
the Primrose flowers; a mild autumn, and sometimes even
a mild winter, will bring them into flower, and cultivated
specimens sometimes bloom all the year round. I have many
records of Primroses blossoming in December and January,
both wild and in gardens. On December 23rd, 1876, and
October 2nd, 1882, I saw them out abundantly (the weather
being mild) in two woods which had both been cut down the
previous winter. After the severe winter of 1879-80, how-
42 The corolla does not fall off, as in some Primulas, but the ovary in
growing stretches it at the bottom.