PRIMULA. 



P. cortusoeides (see notes to P. saxatilis and P. Sieboldii) is a 

 name universally to be met with in gardens and catalogues, where it 

 is always confused with P. Sieboldii. Unfortunately the species it 

 belongs to is practically unknown in cultivation ; all the plants 

 thus described being either P. Sieboldii in differing forms, or else 

 P. saxatilis. The true P. cortusoeides is a native of the Asiatic main- 

 land, and not of Japan ; it is taller and more graceful than P. Sieboldii, 

 with the leaf -stalks often much longer than the blade of the leaf itself. 

 It should be cultivated, when obtained, like P. Sieboldii. 



P. cottia brings us back once more into the European ranges, 

 where, in a few dark volcanic cliffs in the Cottian Alps, this extremely 

 rare species of the red-haired Erythrodose group may be seen. It is 

 near P. villosa : a small group of neat rosettes of furry oblong spoon- 

 shaped leaves, often entire, and sometimes slightly toothed toward 

 their tips. The glandular scape rises well above the rosette, and 

 carries a number of large rose-pink flowers, with calyx-tube much 

 exceeding the calyx. The seed-vessels are amply vase-shaped, standing 

 erect on lengthened pedicels. P. cottia has been for some years in 

 cultivation, and answers readily to the same treatment that suits 

 P. hirsuta. I found a new station for it near Bobbio one season, 

 however, and on the higher rocks the clumps were all crinkled and 

 dried with heat. When I returned a few summers later it had there 

 died out, and those upper rocks were wholly bare of it, though lower 

 down it still throve. The sun, however, is so very different a pro- 

 position in the Southern Alps from what might be guessed from its 

 pallid manifestations even in the hottest parts of England, that I do not 

 fear P. cottia will ever prove a sun-hater with us, so long as reasonable 

 water is supplied at its roots. 



P.xcridalensis, a false list-name of Gusmus (together with mic- 

 rantha, adulterina, valmenona) for the hybrid between P. tyrolensis 

 and P. Wulfeniana, whose only right name is P. x Venzoi, q.v. 



P. crista, the commonest garden plant called P. " capitata." 



P. cuneifolia, a species akin to P. sujfrutescens, from the Arctic 

 Islands of the Behring Seas. It is a variable small thing, dividing 

 into two named forms, P. Dubyi the larger, and P. saxifragifolia the 

 smaller ; the habit is tufted, with leathery leaves and a short graceful 

 scape carrying rosy flowers among them, or not rising far above. It is 

 a quite smooth and hairless copy, in effect, of our Erythrodose 

 Primulas, and of no less value. 



P. Gusichiana is a species quite near P. angustifolia, if not merely 

 a form of it. It comes from the South-eastern Rockies, and is not 

 in cultivation. 



121 



