For instance I raised a red primrose from seed from
a protected plant, and the flowers, though still resembling those of the
primrose, were borne during one season in umbels on a long foot-stalk like that
of a cowslip.
With regard to the second class of facts in support of the cowslip and primrose
being ranked as mere varieties, namely, the well-ascertained existence in a
state of nature of numerous linking forms (2/12. See an excellent article on
this subject by Mr. H.C. Watson in the 'Phytologist' volume 3 page 43.):--If it
can be shown that the common wild oxlip, which is intermediate in character
between the cowslip and primrose, resembles in sterility and other essential
respects a hybrid plant, and if it can further be shown that the oxlip, though
in a high degree sterile, can be fertilised by either parent-species, thus
giving rise to still finer gradational links, then the presence of such linking
forms in a state of nature ceases to be an argument of any weight in favour of
the cowslip and primrose being varieties, and becomes, in fact, an argument on
the other side. The hybrid origin of a plant in a state of nature can be
recognised by four tests: first, by its occurrence only where both presumed
parent-species exist or have recently existed; and this holds good, as far as I
can discover, with the oxlip; but the P.
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