A. W. Hill 13 



opinion that no hybridisation has ever taken place between P. obconica 

 and P. sinensis. 



Mr Valentine, managing director of Messrs Ware's Nurseries, also 

 says that all their improvements are regarded as being due to selection 

 and cultivation. 



M. Mottet points out that the failure to produce artificial hybrids 

 in the genus Primula is all the more curious since many natural hybrids 

 in the genus are known as for instance among Alpine species and with 

 P. officinalis, P. acaulis, and P. elatior. 



It has been suggested once or twice that P. obconica and P. sinensis 

 may have hybridised naturally in the same way that P. kewensis arose 

 in the first instance', but this view is opposed by M. Mottet", who even 

 goes so far as to say that even P. kewensis cannot be considered to be a 

 hybrid. This latter case has, however, been proved more than once by 

 artificial crosses carefully made at Kew^ 



Besides P. sinensis various other species of Primula have been used 

 in the attempt to produce hybrids such as Alpine auriculas and prim- 

 roses'*; P. floribunda, P. verticillata, P. japonica, P. farinosa, P. cortu- 

 soides, P. sikkimensis'', etc., but with regard to all these it is stated that 

 though seedlings were often obtained there was no evidence of hybridi- 

 sation. 



In an account of an attempt to cross P. obconica with a well-coloured 

 form of P. Sieboldii cortusoides "J. H. W." writes that the latter plant 

 was used as the seed parent and every care was taken to prevent self- 

 fertilisation. Seed was duly formed but the seedlings were nothing but 

 P. Sieboldii cortusoides'^. 



Several interesting varieties have been exhibited in recent years by 

 the Duchess of Bedford; Mr Dickson, the head gardener, started the 

 experiments in 1901 with a fimbriated variety of P. obconica and pollen 

 of Polyanthi, Primroses and P. Sieboldii in varieties was used, later the 

 pollen of P. cortusoides, P. sineiisis and P. rosea. Mr Dickson claims 

 that his results are due to the use of P. sinensis pollen and that one 

 plant shows distinct evidences of the effect of P. rosea. In April, 1911, 

 Mr Dickson showed a plant at a meeting of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society' under the name of " Chenies excelsior" (Plate II, figs. 37, 38) 



■ See Rev. Hon. 1906, pp. 418, 449, fig. 176, where M. Grignan puts forward this 

 suggestion to explain the origin of P. obconica siiperba raised by M. Nonin. 



- Rev. Hon. 1906, pp. 498, 499. 3 gee Kew Bulletin, 1910, p. 325. 



* Journ. Hon. 1887, p. 417. 



= The Garden, 1897, p. 193. « Gard. Chron. 1897, p. 128. 



' Gard. Chron. April 29, 1911, p. 268. 



