Prim and proper
HOW surprising that Charles Quest-Ritson didn’t mention the most famous person). In his ground-breaking paper of 1868, based on years of study in his Kent garden, Charles Darwin was one of the first to recognise that there are two types of the flower (the pin and thrum), which have developed to help promote cross-pollination between plants and reduce self-fertilisation. From his years of observation of this condition, called heterostyly, the ‘father of evolution’ challenged prevailing opinion and stressed that the three primulas—cowslip, primrose and oxlip—are varieties of the same species. He said: ‘They have as good a right to receive distinct specific names as have the ass, quagga and zebra.’
