On the Species of the Genus Primula in Essex. 178
bourhood. I do not mean to say that it is exclusively
confined to Bardfield, for this is not the case. The only
claim which the species has to be called the "Bardfield
Oxlip" is that the first specimens recognized in this country
came from that place. The plant grows profusely in all the
woods between Bardfield and Saffron Walden,—a distance of
nearly fifteen miles,—while it extends for many miles north,
and some miles south, of this district. The statements to
which I object are such as the following, in which it is
spoken of as inhabiting "Clayey woods and meadows in the
eastern counties"30; and "In woods and meadows on clay
soil. Local. Plentiful in some parts of Essex, Suffolk, and
Cambridge."31 These statements, though they may not be
incorrect, still convey a wrong impression. Mr. Doubleday
does not make the case much clearer when he observes,32
"It is not a little strange that this plant should be confined,
as it apparently is, to a few localities in Essex." Neither
does Mr. H. C. Watson bring out the facts of the case, though
he makes, as usual, some most sensible remarks upon the
species. He says of its distribution—"Area 3 & 4. S. limit
in Essex, N. limit in Suffolk; estimate of provinces 2, of
counties 3.....The true species has been observed in
different localities in Essex, &c."38 In the 'Flora of Essex'
we find the following list of localities :—
" (1) Very abundant in most of the woods round Walden ;
Quendon Wood, with P. vulgaris and its var. caulescens
(Gibson); Henham (E. Forster); Bardfield, in meadows,
accompanied by P. veris and not vulgaris (T. Bentall); Saling
(E. G. Varenne); Bumpstead, Widdington, Ashdon (Gibson);
(2) Sparingly in a meadow near Grinstead Green (T. Bentall);
Panfield (E. Harding, of Great Henny); (3) Springfield
(A. Wallis, late of Brighton, extracted from Proceedings of
Lond. Bot. Soc.); frequent near Broomfield (Jonathan Grubb).
This rare British plant is common in some parts of Essex.
Near Walden it is much more abundant than P. vulgaris,
whose place it takes in the woods......"
30 Bab. Man. Brit. Bot., 1867, 6 ed., p. 277.
31 'English Botany,' 1867.
32 'Phytologist,' vol. i., p. 295.
33 'Cybele Britannica,' 1849, p. 292.