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MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the hybrid from choice seed, the beautiful new Munstead, loved 



by Mrs. Francis King, of Michigan. 



I have been asked to speak this afternoon of a perennial 



plant and have taken this race of plants because they are so little 



known here in the Northwest. I pro- 

 claim that they are hardy, raise my 

 voice for them — and for other perenni- 

 als which are considered of doubtful 

 hardiness. I can answer the call of the 

 primrose, having made a beginning of 

 the Primrose Path in Minnesota, of 

 which I hope others will join with me in 

 the making, and extend this path to- 

 wards the path already started. 



Fig. 1. 







Primroses are beautiful in front and 

 among tulips as in pictures one and two, 

 and the blue of the Scilla, No. 3, blends 

 with their colors of orange, pale yellow, 

 maroon, laced with gold. 



Primrose auricula, and the other 

 name, polyanthus, is described as 

 "plants with pale green foliage in a 

 Fi £ 2 - rosette, or tuft, flowers in dense clus- 



ters on stout, leafless stems, which rise high — some low — above 

 this tuft of leaves. The foliage is beautiful. Some appear as 

 dusted with powder, which gives them a silvery appearance. 



The flowers come in clusters, or umbels, often globe shaped 

 clusters, carried high above the plants in shades of yellow, 

 brown, red, pink and white. I am not speaking of the half hardy 

 (white) varieties which require the experienced care of a col- 

 lector, but let us start with those easy to grow, then later enlarge 

 the collection to include those from China and India. 



