Segregation of Floral Characters in the Wild Oxlip

Abstract

In quite a number of wild oxlip plants, presumably hybrids between the primrose (Primula vulgaris) and the cowslip (Primula veris), growing in situations where both the latter species abound, I find that the earliest formed flowers are borne on long peduncles of the primrose type, and are succeeded later, on the same plant, by flowers arranged on the umbelliferous type as in the cowslip. Now, the question arises whether this dimorphic arrangement also occurs in Primula elatior (Jacq.), the oxlip of East Anglia, which is regarded by some botanists as a distinct mutational variety or species. If this segregation of floral characters is not found in Primula elatior, then this fact would favour the supposition that this species is a real mutational form and not a hybrid.