PRIMULA. 



error by calling it P. a. Sibtkorpii. It is, in point of fact. P. a. rubra of 

 Sibthorp and Smith ( 1 S 1 3 ) , whereas the name S'lforpii was not 

 applied till 1824 and 1S42 {P. amoena va .Sibil vrpii, Koch. ; and P. 

 Sibthorpii, Hbfimansegg, — as a ^pecies). P. a. rubra is a most interest - 

 ing and valuable plant, by no means so rare as one might fear, lying 

 " perdue " in many old gardens under one or another of its false names. 

 It is the Byzantine and Levantine form of P. acaulis. occurring, to the 

 exclusion of the type, from Constantinople down through Asia Minor. 

 It is of delightful beauty, as easy of cultivation as the species ; and is 

 the parent, over the several centuries that it has been in cultivation, 

 of all the coloured primroses that figure in catalogues as P. lila-cina, 

 P. rosea, P. purpurea, and P. afropurpurea. The most illustrious of 

 its breed, for those who love such things, is the rather farouche old 

 Double Lilac, which those who want to cannot keep, and those who do, 

 ignore. P. acaulis genuina, however, the wild type, has yielded us 

 from an English copse one superb and glorified edition of itself 

 in Evelyn Arh.criglit. a magnificent primrose, undistinguishable in 

 flower from her common sisters except in the fact that she is at least 

 double their size. Evelyn hails from the woods of Cornwall, I believe, 

 Nature's belated tribute to the megalomania of that over-favoured 

 Land, and may always be known, even when not in flower, by the 

 especial dark greenness and the exaggerated crinkliness of her large 

 sombre foliage. (Look up any doubtful name in lists under P. 

 jfiz'.nalis.) 



P. Aitchisoni is an Afghan species in the section of P. nivalis. 

 It is not yet in cultivation, and the very colour of its flower was not 

 known to Pax. The scape is nearly as long as the leaves, which are 

 stalked, entire, rather fleshy, and perfectly glabrous and without 

 powder when adult : in bloom it clearly Las the tilac-purple of the 

 NivaMds, 



P. albiflos leads us far from the humble haunts of Primroses. It 

 is a plant almost legendary in its beauty, not yet attained, nor for 

 many years to be attainable by the small garden. It carries two noble 

 white flowers at the top of its scape, and glorifies the high Atuntzu 

 Range by the Mekong-Salwen Divide, the special paradise of new 

 beauties in the race. Kingdon Ward discovered it and named it ; 

 on Kingdon Ward depend our hopes for its introduction. Xo peril at 

 the hands of fierce Tibetan monks should be too high a price to pay 

 for it. Like the last it belongs to the N.vaLs group. 



P. algida, as I have known it, is not a species of particular merit, 

 resembling a rather dowdy and enlarged P. farinosa, demanding the 

 same treatment, and responding to it. P. algida is nearly related to 



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