Plates 537-538. 

 PRIMULA JAPONICA. 



Since the day when Liliinii auratum was displayed by Messrs. 

 Veitch and Son, for the first time, to the horticultural public, 

 we cannot recollect so great a sensation to have been occasioned 

 by any plant as by that which we now figure, wlien Mr. William 

 Bull exhibited it on May 3rd of the present year. 



Its history is now well known, and of its merits too much 

 cannot be said. To Mr. Fortune, already so fortunate in 

 enriching our gardens, are we indebted for it ; and Mr. Bull 

 may well congratulate himself on being the first to introduce 

 it into Europe. A Primula one foot to one foot and a half 

 high, bearing four or five separate whorls of flowers, each 

 flower an inch in diameter and of a splendid Magenta colour, and 

 the plant moreover perfectly hardy — can anything be added to 

 this to indicate its value ? We hardly think so ; and every one 

 who saw it will fully bear out our assertion, that a more beautiful 

 and more useful plant has not been for many years introduced 

 into Europe. Of its hardiness there can be no doubt, as it has 

 stood the ordeal of the last severe winter in the neighbourhood 

 of London. 



It carries with it its own honours, but we may add, that it 

 has obtained a first-class certificate, and might well have claimed 

 the Lindley medal. We have to thank Mr. Bull for his courtesy 

 in permitting our artist to make the very beautiful drawing 

 with which he has enriched the pre.'^ent number. 



