It rests,
first, on statements made by several competent observers that they have raised
cowslips, primroses, and oxlips from seeds of the same plant; and, secondly, on
the frequent occurrence in a state of nature of plants presenting every
intermediate gradation between the cowslip and primrose.
The first statement, however, is of little value; for, heterostylism not being
formerly understood, the seed-bearing plants were in no instance protected from
the visits of insects (2/7. One author states in the 'Phytologist' volume 3 page
703 that he covered with bell-glasses some cowslips, primroses, etc., on which
he experimented. He specifies all the details of his experiment, but does not
say that he artificially fertilised his plants; yet he obtained an abundance of
seed, which is simply impossible. Hence there must have been some strange error
in these experiments, which may be passed over as valueless.); and there would
be almost as much risk of an isolated cowslip, or of several cowslips if
consisting of the same form, being crossed by a neighbouring primrose and
producing oxlips, as of one sex of a dioecious plant, under similar
circumstances, being crossed by the opposite sex of an allied and neighbouring
species. Mr. H.C. Watson, a critical and most careful observer, made many
experiments by sowing the seeds of cowslips and of various kinds of oxlips, and
arrived at the following conclusion, namely, "that seeds of a cowslip can
produce cowslips and oxlips, and that seeds of an oxlip can produce cowslips,
oxlips, and primroses.
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