This presumed oxlip was propagated by
offsets, which were planted in different parts of the garden; and if Professor
Henslow took by mistake seeds from one of these plants, especially if it had
been crossed by a primrose, the result would be quite intelligible. Another case
is still more difficult to understand: Dr. Herbert raised, from the seeds of a
highly cultivated red cowslip, cowslips, oxlips of various kinds, and a
primrose. (2/10. 'Transactions of the Horticultural Society' 4 page 19.) This
case, if accurately recorded, which I much doubt, is explicable only on the
improbable assumption that the red cowslip was not of pure parentage. With
species and varieties of many kinds, when intercrossed, one is sometimes
strongly prepotent over the other; and instances are known of a variety crossed
by another, producing offspring which in certain characters, as in colour,
hairiness, etc., have proved identical with the pollen-bearing parent, and quite
dissimilar to the mother-plant (2/11. I have given instances in my work 'On the
Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication' chapter 15 2nd edition
volume 2 page 69.); but I do not know of any instance of the offspring of a
cross perfectly resembling, in a considerable number of important characters,
the father alone. It is, therefore, very improbable that a pure cowslip crossed
by a primrose should ever produce a primrose in appearance pure.
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