PRIMULA. 



with bunches of drooping blooms and a beaded line of white powder 

 along the toothings of the long dark leaves. 



P. nivalis eximia carries the section into a far country. For it is 

 a form of Japan, and crosses the Pacific by way of the Pribilof and 

 Aleutian Islands, so as to begin the conquest of North America for 

 its name, though the head of the family stays at home in Asia. P. 

 n. eximia cannot, however, get so far, and the flag has to be carried 

 on into the New World by P. n. pumila. P. n. eximia is greatly to 

 be desired ; it is a neat dwarf, of most sturdy port and habit, with 

 flowers of especial size and brilliancy. Not only this, but its look and 

 range give hopes of a less valetudinarian form of the species. 



P. nivalis farinosa (P. nivalis turkestanica) is only found in its 

 name-country. The leaves are much shorter than in the last, but no 

 less densely mealy underneath and at the edge. The calyx, however, 

 is more purple, and the purple stars are often borne in tiered heads 

 one above the other. 



P. nivalis lineariloba is still obscure, and may prove a new species. 

 It has the flowers cut into quite narrow segments, and this at present 

 is the limit of its description. 



P. nivalis longipes lives in the mountains of Pontus, and is con- 

 spicuously stout and tall and magnificent, even in this tall and magni- 

 ficent group. Its purple flowers are very large, and borne like those 

 of P. n. Bayernii on long drooping pedicels. But the calyces are green. 

 The leaves are some 10 inches long, and the stems easily exceed a foot. 



P. nivalis macrocarpa is another tall, stout development, with 

 minutely scalloped foliage lightly powdered underneath. 



P. nivalis macrophylla used to be considered as=P. purpurea 

 (Royle), the pretender always sent out to the brief life that here is its 

 portion under the name of P. " Stuartii purpurea." It is moder- 

 ately robust and large, often with tiered violet blossoms ; and the 

 scantly-scalloped dark leaves are powdered with j^ellow underneath. 



P. nivalis melanantha is smaller in habit, with flowers of especially 

 profound violet. Possibly a species apart, from Central China. 



P. nivalis Moorcroftiana is smaller and dwarf er than these last, 

 with a remarkably scanty allowance of powder, if any at all. 



P. nivalis pumila is a dwarf and powderless development from a 

 place unnameable. For it lives in Tschuktschuland, beyond reach of 

 even the best-oiled tongue, and thence it wanders on into Arctic 

 America — a lovely graceful thing, with heads of big violet blossom, on 

 stems of 2 inches or so, suggesting in effect some massed and gigantic 

 cushion-Silene. 



P. nivalis sinensis (Pax) is P. n. sinopurpurea, q.v. 



(1,900) 161 II. — L 



