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In considering the Primrose the parent (is its range widest as ought to be parent) of Cowslips &c; it might be asked how selection could have come into play in producing long flower stalk of Cowslip.— I do not say it here, but I may mention a fact, to show that it is just possible.— During many years I have yearly noticed that some small birds pluck off the flower of the common primrose & coloured primrose, apparently for play, close below the corolla.— I have noticed this with the wild plants, when they do not swarm.— Now in a plant struggling for life the loss of the flowers habitually & I have noticed

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several times every single flower strewn on the ground, this would be great injury. In my experimental garden I had some various Oxlips growing, some with very short footstalks & some with stalk as long as in cowslip — every single flower was pulled off the lower plants & not one touched on the high.— So that these forms would be greatly favoured & would sow manifold more seeds.—

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