PRIMULA. 



te, that I have often wondered whether their plant be indeed the 

 true P. ca or whether the august name may not really be 



cloaking P. glaucescens, that vain and vulgar usurper of so many titles, 

 which so rarely appears in the market under its own. P. carniolica 

 ramifies and forms spreading trunks along the ground ; and may 

 readily be increased by seed or division. It has produced one Irybrid, 

 which will be found under the name of P. venusta. 



P. x Carudi, a rare and not horticulturally valuable natural 

 hybrid of P. glaucescens longobardax P- spectabilis, on neither of which 

 is any improvement conceivable. 



P. ca-shmiriana, so profusely catalogued and universally grown, is 

 usually only one of innumerable and undecipherable forms or hybrids 

 of P. denticulata. 



P. caucasica should be a form of P. auriculata ; but under the name 

 also appears in lists an object which, being purchased for large sums, 

 proves to be indistinguishable from a Cowslip. 



P. Cavalieri is a form of P. obconica. 



P. cernua is perhaps the finest of that spicate, cluster-headed lop- 

 sided-belled section, headed in gardens by P. Littoniana. It hails from 

 mountain-meadows on the limestones of Hee-gni-chan by Ho-kin, to 

 the north of Tali. It has a large truss, and fragrant flowers of a good 

 clear blue. All the species of this section have hairy leaves, a very 

 definite indication that they will stand no nonsense in the way of 

 winter-wet. This difficulty attends their culture in all damp climates, 

 and they are not prompt at seeding, either owing to natural perversity, 

 or lack of suitable butterflies. 



P. chartacea is an unintroduced and barely known species, with 

 large papery leaves, glaucous beneath. It will probably be tender, 

 as it comes from shady bamboo -groves in Szechuan. 



P. ciliata (Schrenk), is a discarded subname for P. hirsuta. But 

 P. ciliata of all gardens and catalogues (with its varieties coccinea, 

 purpurea, eximia, and so on), is simply an unjustifiable name applied 

 to some among the innumerable forms of the vast hj'brid race of 

 P. x pubescens, q.v. 



P. cinerascens, a central Chinese species, akin to P. mollis. 



P. Clarkei, a glabrous little thing in the group of P. Gambeliana, 

 with all the habit of a Viola, — big cordate leaves, no scape, and a big 

 baggy calyx to the handsome flowers. P. Clarkei comes from Kashmir ; 

 or would, if brought. 



P. Clusiana carries us leaping back across the world, to where, on 

 high limestones of Austria and Styria, this magnificent Primula forms 

 masses and wide stretches in a carpet composed also of P. minima, 



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