That P. Purdomii, the plant in question, is a very pleasing 
addition to our garden Primulas is undoubted, but whether 
it is one which deserves recognition as a species apart from 
the rather variable North Temperate P. nivalis, Pall., figured 
at t. 1161 of this work, depends very largely upon the 
value as a distinctive character of the relatively much 
larger stigma met with in P. Purdomii. In any case there 
is no doubt that the latter is merely the geographical repre- 
sentative in Kansu of its Siberian and North American 
congener. Our plate has been prepared from a plant 
presented to the Kew collection by Messrs. Veitch which 
was grown in a cold frame and flowered freely, but failed 
to set seed, so that the fruit and seed shown in our illus- 
tration had to be added from material kindly supplied by 
that firm. Like most members of the “ Nivalis ” group of 
Primulas, P. Purdomii died after flowering. It is a plant 
of dese growth and robust habit which prefers a loamy 
soil, 
Descrietion.— Herb, acaulescent. Leaves oblanceolate, 
lanceolate or oblong-oblanceolate, narrowed at the base into 
a winged or wingless petiole over 1 in. long, obtuse or 
somewhat acute, up to 44 in. long, nearly 1 in. wide, white- 
mealy, nerves hardly visible, margin revolute, entire or 
- denticulate. Scape nearly 5 in. long, mealy towards the 
top, hearing an 8-flowered umbel; involucral bracts about 
% in. long; pedicels usually decurved, up to + in. long, 
white-mealy. Calyx 2 in. long; lobes oblong-lanceolate, 
somewhat acute, about as long as the tube, 4!,—y, in. wide. 
Corolla lavender, becoming at length rosy-lilac ; tube rather 
larger than the calyx, & in. wide; limb spreading, nearly 
1 in, across, lobes elliptic or obovate-elliptic, rounded, 4 in. 
across, with a few short gland-tipped hairs above. Anthers 
rz in. long, subsessile. Ovary 4 in. long, ‘fy In. wide; 
style § in. long; stigma gy in. long. Capsule exserted, 
ee 
oblone, about 2 in, long, straw-coloured, grooved ; seeds 
small, tuberculate. 
Fig. 1, calyx and pistil; 2, corolla, cut verti isti i 
“ , , cally ; . : 
6, seeds :—ull enlaryed except 4, which is of natural nas iy spaniels ne aaa 
