Plate 436. 



DOUBLE-FLOWERED FERN-LEAVED 

 PRIMULA. 



There is no flower more popular or more useful for the Spring 

 decoration of greenhouses and conservatories than the Primula, 

 and it has certainly rewarded in a remarkable manner the 

 attention that has been paid to it of late years. Those who can 

 recollect the small meagre blooms which used to be tolerated as 

 Chinese Primroses, can appreciate the immense difierence there 

 is now, in the large finely formed flowers and ample foliage that 

 we meet with everywhere, while intensity has been added to 

 the colour, and new shades have been introduced; then by a 

 judicious crossing with the double Chinese herbaceous primrose 

 a strain of double and semi-double flowers was introduced, some 

 of which we have alreadj^ figured in our pages. After some time 

 a remarkable difierence in the foliage ajDpeared, and what were 

 not inaptly termed Fern-leaved Primulas, coming true from 

 seed, were introduced by Messrs. E. Gr. Henderson & Son ; and 

 now a still further step has been made, and double flowers have 

 been produced on the same foliage. 



The Messrs. F. and A. Smith of Dulwicb, who had previously 

 either raised or introduced some of these novelties, are the pos- 

 sessors of this new strain, and recently exhibited a plant at a 

 meeting of the Floral Committee of the Eoyal Horticultural 

 Society, where they gained a first-class certificate. We are in- 

 formed by them that it will be some time before they are able 

 to distribute it to the public, but with the skill that they have 



