PRIMULA. 



perhaps several species, all being rock-tufts, with heads of fragrant 

 large blue-pink blossom. See Appendix. 



P. Columnae, a name that frequent lj r appears in the lists of foreign 

 collectors, is a handsome, large, pale-yellow Cowslip, one of the 

 prevalent forms in the Southern Alps. See under P. officinalis. 



P. commutata, a thin-leaved, large and lax sub-form of P. villosa, 

 round on porphyry, near Herberstein in Styria. This is wrongly given 

 as a species in some handbooks. See P. villosa. 



P. concinna is a most exquisite little species for which at present 

 we call in vain. It is, indeed, in cultivation, but not within reach of 

 ordinary hands. P. concinna forms dense cushiony masses not an inch 

 high, among the grey grit and damp gravel of the highest moraines in 

 Sikkim ; and the clump is set with minute scapes, carrying two or 

 three lovely round rosy flowers, with a notched yellow eye. It is a 

 Himalayan species, there making good the Himalaj'an lack of P. fari- 

 nosa, to which it is nearly akin, differing in its tufted habit, minute 

 growth, and powdering of golden meal beneath the leaves. In cultiva- 

 tion such a treasure ought to promise well. 



P. confirms (Schott), one of the countless old false names foi 

 P. hirsuta, which occasionally, thus disguised, makes several appear- 

 ances in the same catalogue under different epithets. 



P. conspersa. See Appendix. 



P. cordifolia is another Sikkim species, akin to P. Gambeliana. It 

 is not, I believe, in cultivation ; a plant of small growth, with from 

 three to four flowers in an umbel. 



P. x coronata is the natural hybrid between P. minima x P. oenensis. 

 It takes two forms, the one, P. x pumila, closer akin to P. minima, quite 

 minute with two lovely round rosy flowers on a scape barely as long 

 as the microscopic leaves ; and P. x Widmerae, verging more towards 

 P. oenensis, of rather larger habit, and less distinguished in growth. 

 These two developments of P. coronata, with intermediate forms, are 

 only to be seen in the Pass of the Frate di Breguzzo, close to the 

 Adamello in Judicaria, being the one point at which P. minima meets 

 P. oenensis. They are of rare occurrence and great charm ; perfectly 

 easily cultivated under the conditions that suit P. minima, and under 

 cultivation grown g more strongly and flowering more freely than in 

 nature. P. coronata, it will be understood, is the covering name, and 

 now, und< c Viennese rule, the one justified name for all forms of the 

 hybrid. In old days, any conspicuous form of a mule was given a 

 • < ; title, with the result that our catalogues are now crowded and 

 clouded with many such superfluous epithets, all of them cloaking one 

 variable family of intermediates. 



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