PRIMULA. 



and so opportune in its flower-season, that it seems a perennial wonder 

 why it bo seldom is seen in gardens. It makes fine clumped tufts of 

 rather limp membranous lush green leafage, toothed and smooth and 

 powderle— , about 6 or 8 inches long ; and then well above these in 

 July and August sends stout stems of 8 or 10 inches or more, carrying 

 large rather dense balls of large, soft sulphur-coloured blossoms, full 

 in outline and of the utmost preciousness and comely charm in them- 

 selves, to say nothing of the fact that the}- have no competition then 

 to meet, though they would cope well with the keenest. P. luieola 

 can easily and often have its clumps divided, and grows with equal 

 zeal in sun or shade, the only thing it asks for being richness, coolness 

 at the root, and good drainage. It comes from damp places and 

 alpine meadows of East Caucasus, and has been in cultivation since 

 1867. 



P. Maeounii belongs to the arctic fringe of America, and is only 

 to be seen in one of the Pribilof Islands — that of St. Paul. This pious 

 plant is a small form of P. nivalis, and is hardly to be separated from 

 P. ■ Itnia, q.v. 



P. macrocarpa, Maxim., is very rare even in Japan, to which it is 

 peculiar; and then - tact. For it is an ugly little thing, 



with a clump of leaves like those of Saxifraga stellar is. but quite 

 inferior small pink stars of blossom in clusters that should blush 

 deep with shame by the side of any form of its close cousin P.farinosa. 



P. mageGanica is one of the innumerable local developments of 

 P.farinosa, q.v., though so distinct as perhaps to deserve brevet rank 

 as a sub-speeks. no less for the vigour of its own habit and height 

 of stem than for its remoteness from all its kin, leaping the Equator 

 and the tropics, and carrying the fame of the family high-headedly 

 towards the Antarctic Pole. 



P. x magia&8onica=P. x Facchinii, q.v. 



P. malacoeides is only fitted for a greenhouse, and there are two 

 forms or '• — *.he true main type with tiered honey-scented 



flowers of white or pink, and a smaller, weaker, poorer, seedless 

 thing called P. pseudo-mala weides. 



P. maUophyUa is a Chinese bog-plant, close akin to P. japonka, 

 and often in past days confused with it. 



P. malvacea has large almost rounded basal leaves on long stalks, 

 and then s'-nds up tall scapes bearing remote whorls of pale-lilac 

 flowers, the calyx segments afterwards expanding round the capsule 

 into wide green wings as in . ' It has too soft a 



ltution to be trusted in the op(-n. even were its habitat (in the 

 limestones; of Xunnan at elevations of only 4000 feet) enough to 



152 



