Dap. 7639. 
PRIMULA singnsts. 
Native of China, 
Nat. Ord. PrimuLacem.—Tribe PRIMULE. 
Genus Primvna, Linn. ; (Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. ii. p. 631.) 
Primvta sinensis, Sabine ex Lindl. Coll. Bot. t. 7. Hook, Erot. Flora, t. 
105. Bot. Mag. t. 2564. Hance in Journ. Bot. N. 8. vol. ix. (1889) 
p- 262. Gard. Chron. 1889, vol. i. p. 115, fig. 16; 1890, vol. ii. p. 564, 
fig. 119 ; 1891, vol. i. p. 209; 1892, vol. i. p. 13, fig. 2. Hemsl. § Forbes in 
Journ. Linn. Soc. vol. xxvi. (1889) p. 42. Sutton in Journ. Hort. Soc. 
vol, xiii. (1891) p. 99. 
P. prenitens, Ker-Gawl. in Bot, Reg. t. 539 (1821). 
P. setulosa, Kickx f..in Mem. Soc. Linn. Par. vol. iv. (1826) p. 31, t. 3. 
P. semperflorens, Loisel ew Steud. Nomencl. Ed. 2, vol. ii p. 296. 
P. mandarina, Hoffm. in Otto § Dietr. Allg. Gartenz. vol. iii. (1835) p. 194, 
1, 
Oscaria chinensis, Lilja, in Linddl. Bot. Notiser. 1839, p. 39, ex Linnea, 
vol. xxii. (1849) p. 259. 
The recent flowering of specimens of Primula sinensis 
raised from freshly imported seeds taken from indigenous 
plants, and the receipt of herbarium specimens, affords 
the opportunity of recalling the history of this familiar and 
beautiful green-house ornament, which, though so long 
known under cultivation, has only within comparatively 
few years been collected in a native state. This has been 
effected first, according to Mr. Sutton, in 1879, by a Mr. 
Walters, and more recently by two travellers who have, 
whilst working independently, done more towards making 
known the botanical riches of China than have all previous 
collectors put together; they are the French missionary 
Abbé Delavay, and H.B.M. Consul Henry, both of whom 
found Primula sinensis in limestone rocks fully exposed 
to the sun, at Ichang on the River Yangtze Kiang, a 
thousand miles above its mouth. There Mr. Henry describes 
it as growing in extremely dry rocks, where there is 
practically neither soil nor moisture, flowering in December 
and January, and known as the Rock or Winter Prim- 
rose. Mr. Walters, on the other hand, describes it as 
OcropeR Ist, 1897. 
