PRIMULA. 



it varies according to climatic conditions so vastly that almost every 

 country or county lias its named form, often attempting specific 

 rank, and as species occasionally appearing in catalogues. In all the 

 alpine chains of the Northern hemisphere the species, or forms very 

 closely allied, are to be found ; though it is but poorly represented in 

 China, and not at all in the Himalaya. In England P. farinosa belongs 

 to the Northern counties, and is especially notable in Westmorland 

 and the Craven Highlands. Here, on all the grassy open fells round 

 [ngleborough the Primula sheds a wide glow of pink in early summer ; 

 by no means restricted to the marshes (though in marshes also most 

 generously occurring), but abounding especially on the high scars of 

 rough turf. It also descends into the valleys, and is glorious, for 

 instance, on the railway cuttings between Settle, Ribblehead and 

 Bent ham. It is often, even, found in glowing colonies by the road- 

 sides, with heads as ample as some Verbena's, and in these valley 

 stations it is curious to note that it is much later in blossom than on 

 the fells, where it is nearer to primeval conditions, and preserves the 

 tradition of the alpine summer, so short that plants must needs rush 

 out into flower the moment the snow disappears, before, in another 

 moment, the early snow returns again. Therefore, when all the hills 

 are sheeted in a film of lilac, at the end of May, no bud will yet be 

 found open in the valleys a thousand feet below. Rabbits have a 

 taste for picking its flowers, and so have tourists. But, where the 

 Primula can be protected from these enemies in the animal kingdom 

 (as, for instance, round the Lake at Ingleborough, and on the high 

 places of the fells where tourists do not go, and the Primulas by far 

 outnumber even the rabbits), there is no doubt that the precious beauty 

 is yearly increasing in abundance, so that long ranges of turf that 

 used to be dully green in spring are now roseate with veils of Primula- 

 pink as definite as the rosy haze it sheds over the Alps. In cultivation 

 P. farinosa has had a gloomy reputation ever since the days of Par- 



>n, who declares that it " will hardly abide to be noursed up." It 

 is possible that too much care may be the cause of its frequent failure 

 to survive for long in Southern gardens : that, and a slavish imitation 

 <»f imagined natural conditions. The crown, too, which is essentially 

 gregarious in nature, and is only found densely wadded up in grass 

 and other vegetation (the matting of many roots thus ensuring equable- 



of humidity and steady drainage), is usually planted in gardens in 



tend Lonelini as a tribute to its rarity, difficulty, and reputation. 

 There is an instinct in us that prescribes isolation and particular care 



'1 suoh ill-famed til jects, which in reality only want the struggle 

 f<>r life among their fellows to spur them into a hearty vitality which 



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