PRIMULA. 



in the Val di LediD, and now yearly increasing in robustness and 

 magnificence and number of rosettes and flower- 1 masses. 



P. auriculata, as I have seen it, is not a specially attractive species 

 of the Farinosa section. It is, in fact, close akin, alike in habits and 

 ranee, to P. al'jida, which is Siberian in its distribution, whereas 

 P. auriculata is clearly limited to the hills of Bithynia, Cappadocia 

 and Paphlagonia. It is a variable type, and its best form. P. a. 

 Bornrnudleri. is occasionally to listed as a species. 



P. BaR under P. auricula. 



P. Balfour iana. Watt, is P. Tanner i, King. P. Balf'Mriana of 

 atal _ a very fi:. form under P. / pubescens. See 



P. hire (a. 



P. Barbeyana is a rorrn of the tender P. 



P. barbicalyx is a form of the tender P. obconica. 



P. baiangensia is like a glorifi d Celsia. It is a yellow-flowered 

 cousin to P. malvaeea. 



P. Beesiana is a recent introduction by the firm whose name it 

 somewhat unworthily bears. For despite the glowing cries of cata- 

 logues, it is rather coarse in growth, and has blossom ing a 

 virulently -magenta form of P. japonica, alike in shape and spike. No 

 difficulty unfortunately attends the cultivation of this plant, which 

 has the requirements, as it has the style, of P. japonica. 



P. bdla, is a tiny treasure of extreme beauty, first recorded from 

 the summits of Tsang-chan, and introduced into cultivation in 1908. 

 This is a fluctuating n-^me belonging to a small high -alpine group, 

 and one of its forms, P. b. Bonatii, may ultimately take rank as a true 

 species. The plants of this family have small, spatulate leaves, so 

 deeply toothed as to have a curly fringed look, and powdered with a 

 lighter or heavier coating of m*-al. The flowers of P. bella, carried 

 singly on a scape about an inch high, strongly recall those of P. minima 

 in size and shape, but the throat is block* d with a mass of white hairs 

 — the diagnostic of this group — and the colour is of a soft lilac-purple. 

 Among other variations is a form neat and tight and dense as Sax. 

 oppositifolia. For this, as for the type, the general public will probably 

 have to pine for many years in vain ; P. bella has only looked in upon 

 us, and may not stay long enough to be distributed. If ever such a 

 golden day should dawn, P. bdla will be most likely to answer to 

 cool alpine treatment in a spongy soil, rich and rough and very 

 . with underground water turned on through the bed in 

 sumi:. 



P. bellidifolia, from the Sikkim-Himalaya, is a flaccid-leaved, 

 powderless species of thi " oid section, with blue-purple little 



111 



