PRIMULA. 



the toothed and more or less powdered foliage, which, however, is less 

 leathern and stiff than in the species its mother. And the flowers 

 are intermediate, having the beauty of both parents and an added 

 intensity of colour, though leaning more towards the loveliness of 

 P. marginata, which clearly is the dominant original of the cross. 

 The hybrid has many splendid colour-forms, and seems to breed back 

 again into secondary crosses with cither or other of its parents — but 

 always a glory not to be mistaken or misunderstood among the 

 species by the most uninstructed and unobservant of passers-by. 

 There was one form among them of a beauty so overwhelming that it 

 can only be realised when I say that it was three times offered by its 

 finder to the eponymous discoverer, and no less than three times 

 refused, thus postulating a heart-breaking degree of virtue on the 

 part of the refuser, no less than on that of the offerer, such as could be 

 called out by no less momentous occasion than a matter of horti- 

 cultural life and death. Let it be known that P. x Cruris, Blue 

 Bowl, to all the vigour of one parent, and the stalwart volume of 

 the other, unites flowers of a clear and lucid sapphire-blue like the 

 finest Chinese glass of Kien-lung, that simply laughs at everything 

 in Europe, and joins hands across the world with P. sapphirina and 

 P. Viola-grandis In time, however, virtue, it is hoped, may be rewarded 

 all round ; for P. x Ciucis, Blue Bowl, continues to thrive as heartily 

 as it should, and promises to be no less a friend to cultivation than its 

 beautiful mother. 



P. Maximowiczii, Regel, is a fat and thriving fraud in a superb 

 race. The whole tuft is lush, green, hairless and downless, rich and 

 rank and large, in a great clump of oval-pointed leaves, very finely 

 toothed, luxuriantly emerald, from which stand up tall stems of 

 18 inches or more, stout and smooth, bearing tiers of blossom that can 

 be compared to nothing but a whorled spike of some mahogany or 

 dirt -coloured hyacinth. In fact I believe that there is no valid dis- 

 tinc 'on between P. Maximoioiczii and P. tingutica: both occupy 

 the Tibetan Alps of North-West China, and from one large bed of 

 blatant Maximowiczii you will get no two flower-spikes of the same 

 colour, dull-browns being the general tone, reds and scarlets (such 

 as have been delusively exhibited) very rare, and the ugliest flowers 

 (where all are so ugly) mergaig indistinguishably into the full fright- 

 fulness of P. tangulica. In cultivation P. Maximcwiczii is as rank 

 and easy as its habit imports. But under careless conditions it may 

 acquiro the name of a miff. In winter a large pane of glass should 

 cover all, to keep off wet and supplement the drainage. The tuft 

 should also be kept, like a rival empire, in a wholesome state of 



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