In size, form, and denticulation, and glandular under- 
surfaces the leaves are identical, though the toothing is 
usually smaller and more regular in imperialis (in both the 
leaves are sometimes quite entire), and both havea slender 
scape and far fewer flowers with more slender pedicels 
than in the cultivated P. imperialis. Both species have 
fruited at Kew, and I have closely examined their seeds, 
hoping therein to find distinctive characters ; but in vain, 
their differences are hardly appreciable. In both the seeds 
are papillose and obtusely angled, those of P. prolifera are 
slightly the larger, and their papillee somewhat shorter. a 
may here observe that P. Poissoni (Tab. 7216), the wild 
and cultivated forms of which are as widely different as are 
the analogous conditions of P. imperialis, has ripened its 
seeds at Kew, and these are very small, subcubical, acutely 
angular, most minutely pitted, but not papillose. 
To clear up the history of these “ Imperial ” Primroses, 
it will be necessary to cultivate plants of P. prolifera from 
Wallich’s original habitat of the Khasia Hills in Eastern 
Bengal, altitude four thousand to six thousand feet, where 
I collected it myself in 1849, and sent seeds to Kew, which 
(as in the case of so many trials of P. imperialis) did not 
germinate. The Khasian may prove distinct from the 
Himalayan plant, which grows only at elevations twelve 
thousand to sixteen thousand feet, and may prove to be 
the same as the Javan, or a third species. 
P. imperialis ig a native of the summits of the loftiest 
Javan mountains at eight thousand to nine thousand fect 
elevation, where it was discovered by the Dutch botanist 
of the Buitenzorg Gardens, upwards of half a century ago, 
and was more recently figured by De Vriese, with the 
name of Cankrienia chrysantha, under an erroneous view of 
the structure of the fruit. The Kew plants were raised 
from seeds sent by Dr. Traub from the Buitenzorg Gardens 
in 1839. Mr. Watson informs me that the seeds were 
soaked in hot water and sown in tropical heat, and the 
seedlings removed into a greenhouse as they germinated. 
Also that a plant was placed in the open border in mid- 
summer last, which is alive up to this date (January 15, 
1892) and which, though damaged as to the foliage, looks 
as if it might survive the winter.—J. D. H 
Fig. 1, Calyx and style; 2, corolla laid open; 3 and 4, stamens; 5, ovary :— 
all enlarged. 
