Kolb, of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Munich, sent {pro- 
bably on the garden account] Mr. Kellerer (now 
Superintendent at Sofia) to Bulgaria in 1891, to procure 
living plants of P. deorwm and other Bulgarian rarities. 
Some of these came into his (Reuthe’s) possession, and he 
disposed of them to Mr. Thomas Ware, of Tottenham. 
They grew into ‘* magnificent specimens,” and flowered in 
1892, when they were exhibited at one of the shows of 
the Royal Horticultural Society as well as at the Royal 
Botanic Society at Regent’s Park. I have not been able 
to find any record of these events in the gardening papers 
of that date, and Primula deorum is not included in either 
of the Kew Lists of New Plants of that period; but it is 
offered in Ware’s Catalogue for 1894. 
The first plant cultivated at Kew was received from the 
Munich Botanic Garden in April, 1892. Subsequently 
another plant, or plants, was obtained from Mr. Thos. 
Ware; in 1904 a further supply was obtained from Mr. 
Max Leichtlin, and it was from one of these plants, which 
flowered in May, 1906, that the drawing for the accom-_ 
panying plate was made. ~ a 
Although the “ Primula of the Gods” has been. success- 
fully grown in some gardens, it is no doubt a_ difficult 
subject, and it does not flourish in the open at Kew. It 
flowered in Mr. Hindmarsh’s Rock Garden on a north 
exposure, in sandy loam, at the foot of a broad stone. 
Mr. Velenovsky does not explain why he gave this plant 
the specific name deorum, but it was probably not given on 
account of its surpassing in beauty all other European 
species, though at its best it is no doubt very ornamental. 
Desev. — Perennial, glabrous in all parts. Rhizome 
thick, fleshy. Leaves from 6-12 in a loose rosette, thick, 
leathery, spathulate-lanceolate, 14-3} in. long. Scape 
solitary, 7-9 in. high, 15-20-flowered, very glutinous in 
the upper part. Bracts about as long as the flower-stalks, 
the longest of which are about an inch long. Flowers violet- 
purple or crimson-purple, about 2 in. in diameter. Corolla- 
lobes notched. Stamens and pistil included in the corolla-— 
tube. Capsule small, enclosed in the calyx which does not 
enlarge.—W. Botrine Hemstry. 
Fig. 1, calyx and pistil; 2, section of corolla showing some of the stamens ; 
3, ovary :—all enlarged. : oe 
