Lo 
MR. G. WATT ON SOME 
Introductory Remarks.—Before proceeding to the description 
of the Indian species of Primula, a few words on the composition 
and geographical distribution of the genus may not be out of 
place. Altogether the genus comprises nearly one hundred 
species, which inhabit the temperate and cold regions of the 
Northern hemisphere, one only being found, and that in great 
abundance, in the Southern hemisphere on the shores of Fuegia 
and in the Falkland Islands*. This is the most remarkable 
feature in the distribution of the genus, inasmuch as it is not 
known to be otherwise represented in the country intervening 
between the mountains of New Mexico and the extreme south 
of Patagonia—a break of about 5000 miles. P. farinosa has the 
widest range of any species in the northern hemisphere, inhabit- 
ing the mountains of Europe from the Pyrenees eastward and 
northward, Central Asia, the mountains of North India, Japan, 
and North America from Labrador and Nova Scotia northward 
and westward to the Rocky Mountains, advancing southward 
along this range to Colorado. An interesting fact in the wide 
and interrupted distribution of P. farinosa, is the comparatively 
slight variation it exhibits throughout its range. The distribu- 
tion of the genus in the northern hemisphere offers some other 
noteworthy features. In round numbers, about forty species 
inhabit Europe, about the same number the mountains of North 
India, nine occur in North America, eight are recorded from 
Japan and China, one from the mountains of Java, one from 
Abyssinia, and Central Asia possesses a few endemic species in 
addition to those that are common to it and other regions. Of 
the nine North-American species, five also occur in North Asia 
or Europe, and three (very distinct species) are peculiar to the 
lofty mountains of Colorado, Arizona, and the adjoining terri- 
tories. On the eastern side of the continent only one species 
occurs as far south as Vermont and New York, where it reaches 
its southern limit. The Abyssinian species are endemic; they 
differ from all others except the Himalayan P. floribunda in the 
complicate vernation of the leaves, a character only to be detected 
in their very young state ; and it may be mentioned that no species 
has hitherto been discovered in the Deccan. Another interesting 
* This, the P. magellanica, Lehm., was identified by the late H. C. Watson 
and Sir J. Hooker (‘Flora Antarctica, i. 937) with P. farinosa, from which, 
however, Sir J. Hooker informs me it is abundantly distinguished by the sessile 
white flowers and the large tuberculated seeds. 
