PRIMULA. 



jump from Kansu to Alaska, where P. borealis has its nearest home. 

 P. Loczii is rather a mystery, still, having affinities both with P. 

 farinosa and with P. sibirica, nearer in nature to the latter, and in 

 appearance to the former. But see Appendix for further news. 



P. longifiora sets our feet once more on the high-alpine meadows of 

 Europe. Even in the wilds it is a notable and delicate species, making 

 small tufts of leaves larger, yet more condensed, than those of P. 

 farinosa, so that in the end the rosette itself is often of less diameter ; 

 seeming almost inadequate to the stalwart stems that it now sends up 

 to carry half a dozen golden-eyed rosy-lilac flowers like those of a very 

 large P. farinosa, but of fuller outline and deeper tone, and set on very 

 long conspicuous tubes of dark purplish-pink that make the plant 

 recognisable immediately. Its range is from the Central Alps, far away 

 through Bosnia to the Caucasus. In Switzerland it is rare, and 

 occurs here and there in single specimens, but in the Eastern ranges 

 on the high limestone meadows, especially in the Dolomites, it be- 

 comes extremely abundant and beautiful, dotting all the grassy lawns 

 of the Forcella Lungieres, the Schlern, Castellazzo, &c, with its long 

 bugled stars of dim rose, above the shimmering pink carpets of P. 

 minima, and leaving P. farinosa far down below in the damp places of 

 humility. In cultivation the growth takes a new character ; it be- 

 comes colossal as a cabbage in any rich moist soil, and is so incom- 

 parably easier to grow and keep than P. farinosa, that one wonders how 

 it is that while everybody wrestles bitterly with the one, the other is 

 hardly if ever seen in the garden. The only point at which it needs 

 safeguarding is in the matter of winter wet ; for if the tuft have 

 made excessive growth, and its situation be not adequately drained, 

 it may possibly prove too soft to stand the damp. Otherwise it 

 offers no trouble at all, seeds as profusely as it grows, and adds to all 

 its benefits that of sending up its magnified heads of blossom in July 

 and August, and indeed at intervals throughout the season, till winter 

 positively says " Cease." Something about the blossoms, however, 

 displeases the taste of slugs ; they have a way of eating off all the 

 pink-and-golden star of the flower's face quite neatly, and leaving 

 nothing but the long bugle of the tube behind. It has no hybrids, 

 none of the records of such satisfying either investigation or the 

 demands of possibility. 



P. longifolia, Bieb.=P. algida, var. sibirica, q.v. 



P. longifolia, Curtis=P. auriculata, q.v. 



P. longobarda, Porta = P. glaucescens (type 2), q.v. 



P. luteola dislikes being water-logged in winter, but is otherwise 

 so perfectly easy to grow in any rich deep cool soil, and so splendid 



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