PRIMULA. 



P. Veitchii, bul lias foliage less hairy, and not white beneath while its 

 Bowers are larger, and with a larger yellow eye. and anthers not yellow 

 but purple. It is possible that these both belong to P. pohjneura. In 

 any case they all appreciate the treatment of Cortusa in the light 

 woodland, and are of easy culture. And see Appendix. 



P. Listen will take the place of evil-minded P. obconica, with which 

 it is connected by a long series of intergrading forms. But it will 

 only do so indoors, standing the winters outside, indeed, but not with 

 strength to develop flower next year. Therefore, outside the green- 

 house we need take no more note either of P. Listeri, King, from the 

 Himalaya, with its strong scent of Herb-Robert, nor of its Chinese 

 substitute, P. sinolisteri, Balf., fil., originally sent out as the same 

 species, but distinct in many ways, and especially in absolutely lacking 

 the scent, though both alike form masses of handsome lobed leaves 

 like dark-green dulled ivy, broken by countless trusses, over a very 

 long season, of lovely large lilac or white blossoms, much finer and 

 more gracefully borne than in the doomed P. obconica. 



P. Littoniana is the most striking species, if not the most beautiful, 

 in the Spike-flowered group — not a hard thing to grow and flower well 

 in light rich soil, but it so upsets insects with its unheard-of spikes 

 that the most faithful Primula-lover refuses to recognise it and 

 passes it by on the other side, so that it does not bear seed and, like 

 all the Hairy -leaves, is painfully apt to miff off if the winter is wet and 

 the situation undrained. It makes a tuft of upstanding oval foliage, 

 ribbed and downy and soft ; and then up shoots a tall powdered stem, 

 terminated by a spike often 6 inches in length, of brilliant scarlet 

 bracts, from which, as the stem grows taller, unfold the innumerable 

 pendent little packed flowers of lavender-lilac or deep violet, till in 

 mid-bloom the spikes seem tapering ghost-flames of blue aspiring to 

 their long tips of crimsoned fire, making an unparalleled effect as they 

 hold up their millions of tall steady candle-lights in the lush grasses 

 of the Yunnanese alps, among the sulphured spraying bells of P. 

 sikkimensis, and the rich claret-rose and bloomy flesh of P. secunch 'flora. 

 P. L ttmiana is not a synonym of P. Viali, as sometimes said ; P. Viali 

 is a much smaller plant, after the same image, but shorter in the 

 spike and altogether inferior, except in the fact that it lacks the 

 hairiness of P. Littoniana. It is possible, of course, that P. Viali may 7 

 prove merely a minor form of the grander species. (P. Viali of Pax 

 is a portmanteau-name, containing, besides itself, P. deflexa, P. 

 Watsoni, and P. gracilenta.) 



P. Loczii is said to bo a microform of P. borealis, Duby (P. mistas- 

 sinica of some catalogues) ; but it hails from Kansu, and it is a far 



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