Tas. 8124. 
PRIMUL A DEORUM. 
Bulgaria. 
Primutacrak. Tribe PrimuLeag. 
Primuta, L.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. ii. p. 631. 
Primula (§ Auriculs) deorum, Velen. in Véstnik Kral. césk spoletn.nauk. 1890, 
p. 55 (Sitzb. Boehm. Gesell. Wiss. 1890); Fl. Bulgar. 1891, p. 479 ; Suppl. 
vol. i, 1898, p. 242; Hindmarsh in Journ. Roy. Hort. Soc. vol. xxix. (1904), 
p- 32, f. 1; Flora & Sylva, vol. ii. (1904), p. 239; Masters in Gard. Chron. 
1905, vol. xxxvii. p. 98, f. 44; Pre & Knuth in Engler, Pfllanzenr. Primul. 
1905, p. 146; Reuthe in The Garden, 1905, p. 327; species ex affinitate 
P. glutinosae a qua planta majore et foliis saepius omniuo integris differt. 
Perennis omnino glabra, ad scapum superne et pedicellos valde glutinifera, 
rhizomate crisso carnoso interdum ramoso. Folia 6-12, crassa, coriacea, 
spathulato-lanceolata, vel interdum fere linearia, 3-8 cm. longa, vix acuta, 
integra vel rare supra medium paucidentata. Scapi solitarii, graviles, 8-15 
em. longi, saepius 5-10-Hori, vel in culto interdum usque ad 18-22 cm. 
alti et 20-flori, umbella unilaterali. Involucri bracteae lineares, pedicellis 
- longiores, basi haud saceatae; pedicelli 3-10 mm. longi. Flores purpureo- 
violacei vel sanguineo-purpurei, speciosi. Calyx cirnosus, 4-5 mm. longus, 
ad medium fissus, laciniis obtusis. Corolla hypocraterimorpha; tubus 
gracilis, circiter 1-2 cm. longus; limbi circiter 1°5 cm. diametro lobi 
imbricati, bifidi, segmentis rotundatis. Genitalia inclusa. Capsula 
globosa, calyce non accrescente inclusa. 
Dr. J. Velenovsky discovered this fine Auricula in 1890, 
growing in humid, grassy places, within the snows (inter 
nives), at the sources of the River Isker, near the summit 
of the Rilo Dagh, South-western Bulgaria; and it has 
since been found in the Muss Alla Dagh and the Despoto 
Dagh, in the same region. Mr. H. J. Elwes, F.R.S., 
collected it in the original locality in 1899, at an elevation 
of between “4,000 and 7,000 ft.’’ Velenovsky gives the 
altitude as 2,500 metres—about 8,200 ft., whereas Pax 
and Knuth give 2,600 to 2,700 metres, equal to about 
8,500 to 8,850 ft. Some uncertainty prevails as to who 
first introduced this plant into cultivation. Pax and 
Knuth say ‘in cultivation since 1904, introduced by 
Messrs. Stansfield,” and Mr. Hindmarsh, in whose garden 
at Alnwick it flowered in 1904, states that it had probably 
not flowered before in this country; but records prove 
that Primula deorum has been in cultivation at Kew ever 
since April, 1892, and Mr. G. Reuthe, in the place cited 
ahove, gives what is doubtless the true history of its 
introduction into cultivation. According to him, Mr. Max 
Marca Ist, 1907. 
