THE FRINGED CHINESE PRIMROSE. 



433 



Shan the Seckel ; from which it differs in 

 form, length of stem, colour and shape of 

 seed, and especially in the time of ripening. 



The annexed description is taken from 

 specimeas which he was kind enough to 

 bring me; 



Fruit small, two and one-fourth inches in 

 length by two and one-eighth inches in its 

 transverse diameter; form roundish, occa- 

 sionally tapering a little to the stem ; skin 

 g'reeiiish-3'ellow, with considerable russet. 



and sometimes a mottled red cheek ; stem 

 a little curved, one and one-quarter inches 

 long, of medium thickness, and inserted in 

 a small cavity; calyx rather large, rcflexed, 

 and set in a shallow basin ; core small ; 

 seed of medium size, black, with a promi- 

 nent point at one of the corners of the blunt 

 end ; flesh whitish-yellow, and melting ; 

 flavor saccharine, rich and highly aromatic, 

 resembling closely that of its parent, the 

 Seckel. Ripe early in August. 



THE FRINGED CHINESE PRIMROSE. 



To amateurs, who like "realiygood things," 

 .ihat is to say, plants with good foliage, ex- 

 cellent habit of growth, and handsome and 

 abundant flowering properties, the Fringed 

 Chinese Primro e may be recommended as 

 something worth having. 



It is a great improvement upon the old 

 Chinese Primrose, so long known in our 

 green-houses. The flowers and foliage are 

 more than double the size of those of the 

 old species, and the colours are much more 

 lively. Our drawing is made from a plant 

 sent us by N. J. Becar, Esq., of Brooklyn^ 

 who bas been particularly successful in 

 growing this variety from seed. Around 

 the whole interior of this gentleman's Ca- 

 mellia conservatory, at Brooklyn, runs a 

 walk, paved with marble, and bordered by 

 lihat exquisite little evergreen plant, the 

 trailing Lycopcedium. The bed, along the 

 •outer margin of the conservatory, is filled 

 with plants of this Fringed Chinese Prim- 

 rose, from a foot to eighteen inches high, 

 surprisingly luxuriant in habit, and covered 

 with blossoms twice the size of those re- 

 presented in the figure. When we say 

 that these plants are continually in bloom, 

 [from December to May, and that they give 



Yql. m. 28 



an appearance of perpetual vernal fresh- 

 ness to the border in which they grow, it 

 will be seen at once how much more valua- 

 ble they are than most of the fugitive 

 plants which fill up the green-house. 



Though the Chinese Primrose is properly 

 a perennial herbaceous plant, yet it thrives 

 and flowers much more satisfactorily when 

 treated as dinan?iiial, — fresh seedlings being 

 raised every year for the winter's supply of 

 flowers ; the old ones cast away. The seeds 

 ripen from April to June ; and fresh seed 

 sown, as soon as ripe, in pots of rich sandy 

 soil, placed in a partially shaded frame, in 

 the open air, will produce fine blooming 

 plants for the coming winter. 



Mr. Becae has raised the beauty of his 

 stock of Fringed Primroses far above that 

 of those commonly grown, by selecting only 

 those seeds produced by the verj'' largest 

 and finest flowers, and those of the finest 

 shades. In this way, he has obtained 

 plants with flowers of a rich, clear, purplish 

 pink, and others of which the flowers ex- 

 pand a pure white, and change to delicate 

 lilac or flesh colour. 



As no plants adapt themselves to the air 

 of the parlor or sitting-room better than the 



