  The HII regions Sh 217 and Sh 219 are textbook examples of a Stromgren sphere
surrounded by an annular photodissociation region (PDR). The annular PDR is
observed in both the 21 cm atomic hydrogen emission and the dust (PAH) emission
near 8 micron (MSX Survey). An ultracompact radio continuum source is observed
in the direction of the annular PDR, in both Sh 217 and Sh 219. JHKobservations
show the presence of highly reddened stellar clusters (AV ~ 20 mag) in the
directions of these radio sources. These clusters are also IRAS sources, of
luminosities 22700 Lo for Sh 217 and 5900 Lo for Sh 219. Each cluster contains
at least one luminous star with an IR colour excess; the one in the Sh 219
cluster shows H-alpha emission. The cluster associated with Sh 217 is almost
spherical and contains luminous objects at its centre. The cluster associated
with Sh 219 is elongated along the ionization front of this HII region. We
argue that these are `second-generation clusters', which means that the
physical conditions present in the PDRs, close to the ionization fronts, have
favoured the formation of clusters containing massive objects. We discuss the
physical mechanisms which may be at the origin of the observed triggered star
formation.
