PRIMULA. 



neat rosette of oval sessile leaves (most membranous in P. breviscapa) 

 invested in a cluster of rich brown scale-leaves. P. breviscapa haunts 

 damp shady rocks on Tehen-fong-shan in Yunnan, and is not yet 

 introduced. 



P. bullata is akin to P. Forrestii, forming thick, massive stems, 

 clothed all along their length in the withered dry leaves of bygone 

 seasons, and ending in the wrinkled evergreen rosettes of the current 

 year, which send up a tall-stemmed umbel of large yellow Polyanthus. 

 P. bullata is hairless, but clothed in golden meal, and, like the rest of 

 its race, dwells in the sheer limestone cliffs of Yunnan, where nine 

 others of its kindred are found, including P. Forrestii. The sub- 

 shrubby, ligneous habit is rare in Primula, and other species that 

 have relation to this strange group in their growth-habits are P. Lacei, 

 th American P. suffrutescens, and lovely P. dryadi folia. 



P. Bulleyana. — The introduction of this magnificent Primula by 

 the enthusiast whose name it justly bears, marks an epoch in horti- 

 cultural history 7 . It may be described, if description is nowadays 

 necessar} 7 , as a counterpart, in size, habit, robustness and requirements, 

 of P. japonica. But the big round flowers that crowd the rich whorls 

 up its stems are, at their opening, of a fierce red-gold developing into 

 a clear pure yellow. P. Bulleyana is of the freest growth and bloom 

 in any cool rich soil such as suits P. japonica. It seeds with great 

 profuseness, and so readily hybridises with others of its sections that 

 before long we shall have a vast confusion of named beauties inter- 

 mediate between PP. Bulleyana, pulverulenta, Cockburniana, and 

 japonica. Already an exquisite hybrid, Bulleyana xBeesiana, has 

 been raised in Edinburgh, with tiers of blossom rich and round, of 

 the most subtle and shaded apricot -salmon. Unfortunately such 

 seedlings vary violently from the pod, and others of this cross have 

 merely perpetuated or intensified the worst faults of P. Beesiana. 



P. cadinensis, a superseded name of Porta's for P. oenensis, q.v. 



P. calliantha has so far barely looked into our gardens, and then 

 liked them so little that it did not even stay long enough to flower, 

 and the young plants (from seed sent home by Forrest hi 1908), made 

 haste to return to China, or wherever it is that dead and disappointed 

 Primulas disappear to. P. calliantha is a species of splendid beauty 

 in the mifTy and capricious Nivalis section, all of whose members 

 stem to want underground water and perfect drainage and an even, 

 humid temperature about them during the growing period. It comes 

 from dense shade in the pine-forests of that marvellous chain of 

 t g-chau which produces Buch a store of Primulas from its skirts 

 and folds and crests, including P. bella and P. amethystina. The 



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