[Crown Copyright Rese.ved.} 
ROYAL BEE AO GARDENS, KEW. 
BULLETIN 
OF 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 
No. 3] [1928 
CALCIPHILA. 
THE SO-CALLED WILD FORM OF Primula Sinensis. 
J. HUTCHINSON. 
Since the year 1820, when it was first introduced into culti- 
vation, Primula sinensis has been one of the most valuable 
and popular of our winter-flowering greenhouse plants. The 
species was first made known to botanists and horticulturists 
in this country through a drawing made in China in 1819 under 
the auspices of one John Reeves, an active member of the Horti- 
cultural Society in those days. This drawing so attracted the 
attention of the members of the Society that efforts were ‘at 
once made to obtain living specimens. These were procured 
in 1820 by a Captain Rawes who presented them to his friend 
Thomas Palmer, of Bromley, Kent. Subsequently two coloured 
awings were ‘prepared from Mr. Palmer’s plant, one being - 
published by Lindley in his Collecta Botanica, tab. 7 (1821) as. 
P. sinensis, and the other by Ker in the Botanical Register 
1821, tab. 539 as P. praenitens 
In his description in the Botanical Register, Ker states that 
Rawes obtained his plant “from the gardens at Canton, where 
it probably found its way from some far more northern quarter 
of the Chinese Empire; none of this generic type having, we 
believe, been observed as natives of the levels of so low a latitude. 
Samples in a dried state had been previously transmitted by 
Mr. Reeves, a or in the employment of the East India 
Company at Canto 
P. sinensis was cas uickly distributed in gardens, for in 1825 
a coloured picture was published in the Botanical Magazine 
(t. 2564), and it was noted therein that in March of that ef 
there was already a large collection of the species at the 
ticultural Society’s gardens at Chiswick. In 1824 it was in 
the possession of Mr. Joseph Knight, the well-known Chelsea. 
nurseryman. The plant figured in the Botanical oe 
z (78)19647 Wt 122—P 23 1000 3/23 E&S 
