PRIMULA. 



P. eximia, from the Kurile and Aleutian Islands, is a magnificent 

 dwarf form of P. nivalis (q.v.), very closely allied to P. Macounii. 



P. Faberi, which is found on the summit of Mount Omi in central 

 China, ought to be a precious treasure when at last it arrives. It 

 belongs to that exquisite and dainty bell-flowered group in which 

 great pendent goblets are produced by twos or threes on delicate 

 short scapes. In P. Faberi the leaves have a homy margin, and the 

 flowers are yellow. No one is yet sufficiently intimate with it to 

 prescribe precise conditions for its culture. 



P. x Facchinii, which must also include P. Dumoulinii of lists, 

 should be the inclusive name for all forms of the natural hybrid each 

 way round between P. minimaxP- spectabilis. Formerly the two 

 names were given, the one to the development approaching nearer to 

 P. minima, and the other verging more towards P. spectabilis. This, 

 P. Facchinii, Pax, is the commoner, though both forms are to be 

 found together on the ridge of the Frate di Breguzzo, where, in earliest 

 June, with minima and spectabilis gleaming all around, their brilliant 

 blossoms glow like little amethystine fires upon the sere brown 

 herbage of the ridge from which the snow has barely melted yet. 

 The hybrid freely varies, and the more attractive in nature is the 

 scapeless one-flowered form known as P. Dumoulinii. This is com- 

 paratively uncommon on that slope, a round-flowered beauty like a 

 glorified P. minima. In nature, too, all forms were a trifle disappoint- 

 ing in colour and size and shape of flower, taking too much after 

 minima's thin, ragged design and pale aniline pink, a fault which 

 makes it the more surprising that in the garden, where they all grow 

 robustly in the conditions that suit P. spectabilis, their character 

 should alter so violently for the better : the habit magnifies, the scapes 

 grow tall and stout, the blossoms big and round and splendid almost 

 beyond recognition, and of a cleared soft tone of brilliance with a 

 clean white eye. 



P. x fallax is a false name for magnificent P. x intermedia. 



P. Fargesii has not yet come down upon us from damp rocks above 

 Cheng-kou in Szechuan. It is a Bell-flower of delicate growth, with 

 horny margin to the leaves. (It is also P. nutantijlora.) 



P. farinosa, besides being the loveliest of all our native alpines, 

 is the largest name, and has the widest distribution, hi the whole race. 

 No gardener is a stranger to the wistful beauty of Pretty Bird e'en, with 

 its little rosettes of grey and mealy foliage, and its delicate scapes, all 

 powdery-white, carrying that loose round head of fragrant soft-pink 

 flowers with a twinkling yellow eye. P. farinosa ranges right across 

 the Northern world from east to west. In the course of its wanderings 



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