192 On the Species of the Genus Primula in Essex.
ever, I noticed the first wild ones out on January 29th; on
February 7th others, and in plenty on the 15th; while on
December 27th, 1880, I found several plants in flower in
spite of the cold weather. I believe that the Primroses in a
cut-down wood at Chignal flowered during eighteen con-
secutive months. Those which bloom thus in the autumn
and winter are generally small, and with very short stalks.
The average time at which the main body of plants flower in
Essex may be set down as the middle of February or the
beginning of March, while very often a succession of flowers
continues to appear until the middle of May. This species
has a much longer period of flowering than the other two.
It is not much given to variation when pure and uncultivated;
indeed, if we set aside all those cases in which the flowers
exhibit more or less relation to the Cowslip and are borne in
a more or less regular umbel, there is very little to notice
under this head, so far as I have observed. The variation in
the size of the flower is often great, but is generally occasioned
by the plant growing in a favourable or an unfavourable spot.
One I gathered at Castle Hedingham measured 13/4 in. across
the corolla. The number of petals also is given to slight
variation. Red flowers sometimes appear on truly wild
plants, but not frequently in Essex. I have seen a single
plant of this sort from Epping Forest.43 Flowers with petals
almost white also appear, and they are commoner in Essex
than red flowers. I have been told that they are quite com-
mon in Horsfrith Park Wood. The leafy or foliated calyx
sometimes, though rarely, appears in a state of nature. In
the spring of 1882 I had three short-styled flowers sent to me
that were gathered on February 28th from a plant growing
among many normal ones on a bank near Chignal. They all
had the five calyx-teeth developed into small green leaves,
which were long enough to project beyond the petals. One
of them had all the inner floral organs abortive, having
remained very small and undeveloped at the bottom of the
43 Whether there be any truth or not in the very common belief that
Primroses planted upside-down in cow-dung turn red I cannot say, but
this is widely credited in Essex.