PRIMULA. 



hybrid, to be guarded against in lists, are P. digenea, P. F alkneriana, 

 P. cauhscens. and P. purpurascens (this last a garden-form, of a dull 

 red). 



P. apennina is the obscurest species in the red-haired group of 

 our alpine Primu 1 is. It has the densely-hairy rosettes of P. hirsute 

 and P. villosa, but, altogether, is closest in habit to P. pedemontana, 

 from which it differs in its furrier and paler vesture, and its smaller 

 capsules. It was only recorded in 1891, and belongs to the Northern 

 Apennines ; not a species of any remarkable distinctness or charm, when 

 weighed against beauties so refulgent as P. pedemontana and P. 

 'a. though no less easy of culture in similar conditions of good 

 drainage, and a light peaty mixture of soil, for preference among 

 firm rocks in full sun. 



P. Arctotis often appears in lists, and is yet another false name 

 for the painfully confused and painfully vast group of intermingling 

 undecipherable hybrids that originate between P. auricula and 

 P. v'Uosa. P. viscosa, and P. hirsuta, and are all to be covered by 

 the huge and unsatisfactory general name of P. x pubescens, q.v. All 

 the forms are well worth growing, remarkably brilliant, beautiful and 

 easy rock plants for light rich loam in sun or partial shade, but none 

 has any claim to be differentiated from P. x pubescens. 



P. x Arendsii, if ever met with in a list, should be disregarded, as 

 a hybrid, useless for ordinary gardens, between P. megaseaefolia and 

 P. obconica. 



P. argutidens belongs to that glorious impregnable group of Bell- 

 flowered Primulas, which droop their fringy great blooms from frail 

 stems on the heights of the Himalayan and Chinese mountains. All 

 are difficult, some are possibly monocarpous, all are very rare and 

 hard to procure. P. argutidens figures as a name of P. amethysfina 

 in Pax and Knuth ; and, though a distinct species, figures not at all 

 in any garden, nor is likely to do so for years to come. The inflated 

 bells are of purple-violet, and fine spongy soil with subterranean 

 water turned on throughout the summer, with perfect drought in 

 winter, will undoubtedly prove our best answer to the riddle of these 

 delicate mountain-fairies, if ever we possess them. 



P. atrodentita. S.e ur.der P. cap. tat i. 



P. Aucheri is a rare member of the whorled. stout -leaved, succulent - 

 looking. yellow-flowered section that inhabits damp r cks in warm 

 climates from India to Abyssinia, and is nowhere hardy in the North. 



P. auricula heads another yellow group, but one of quhe different 

 nature from the last. Of all alpines most precious and universal 

 and easy and hardj* is P. auricula, with its huge meal}' leaves, lying 



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