On the Species of the Gentis Primula in Essex. 199
Concerning the Cowslip (P. veris), I have but few remarks
to make. Most people know it is an inhabitant of open
places, nearly always growing in meadows or on hedgebanks.
I have sometimes seen it extending a short way up the rides
or other open places in woods, but never growing under thick
cover. It is the latest of the three species to flower. In
1879 I noted that the majority of plants in Essex opened
about April 10th ; in 1880 about March 21st; in 1881 about
April 7th ; while in 1882 they opened about the beginning of
April, and were over by May 15th. Occasionally it exhibits,
like the Primrose, a tendency to flower in the autumn. Mr.
Bennett, in the 'Phytologist,' records one blossoming in
November, 1846. I saw one out at Chignal on November 5th,
1880, one on March 1st, 1883, and another at Chelmsford on
January 7th, 1884; while a friend saw one in Wales on
September 15th, 1882. The Cowslip seems to vary but
little, seldom producing those "sports" which appear in
the Oxlip and Primrose. I have never observed it to
bear solitary flowers, or to produce leaves in the umbel, or
a foliated calyx; and the petals seldom vary, except in size
or colouring. I never heard of white flowers; but red
ones are sometimes met with, although I have only once seen
an Essex specimen. This is preserved in H. C. Watson's
Herbarium at Kew, and is labelled "Coloured Cowslip with
limb of corolla flattened, as were others near it, but of the
usual tint. Near Kelvedon, Essex, 1853, E. G. Varenne."
The "double-umbel" does not seem to be uncommon, at any
rate round Chelmsford ; I have seen it also in P. farinosa.
It consists in a small umbel, generally with fewer flowers than
must be admitted that this fact seems to favour the idea that in spite of
care small insects may still have found an entrance. In the long-styled
form the stigma generally almost closes the throat of the corolla-tube, and
in struggling past it a beetle would most probably rub off its adhering
pollen-grains ; but in the short-styled form, where the stigma is placed
lower down in the tube, there appears to be a freer passage, and the
abrasive process would not so certainly take place. Moreover, in the
short-styled flowers, the anthers being at the top of the tube, the
beetles, if pollen-eaters, would congregate there, away from the lower-
placed stigma.—Ed.]