76 President's Address. 



every garden, especially Colchicam speciosum and maxirmnn, wliicli 

 are both very large flowered and fine rose-coloured species, particularly 

 the latter. This is, I think, the same plant as sold by the Colchester 

 Bulb Company as C. speciosum rubrum, and is by far the finest of 

 this family. The double white variety of autumnale is also very fine. 

 The autumn flowering Crocus proper is also well worth growing. 

 Crocus sx)eciosus is very free, multiplies rapidly, and is very hand- 

 some, with large rich striped blue flowers. C. nudijlorus is also a 

 nice species and a free flowerer ; it is of a pale lavender colour. 

 These bulbs take up little room, and should be planted in all odd 

 corners. 



Arnehia echioides, called the Prophet's flower, because the five 

 purple spots on its yellow petals are supposed to be the impress of 

 Mahomet's fingers ; although these spots are not simply on the 

 surface of the petals, but on both sides, they disappear always on 

 the second day after the opening of the flower ; it is a difficult 

 plant to raise from cuttings, but grows freely from seed. 



I have been devoting my attention, for the last two or three 

 years, to the Primidacece ; many of these require a mixture of loam 

 (which is stiff here) with the leaf mould and sand, especially the 

 smaller sized ones, as I find I cannot get them firmed sufficiently 

 without it ; l^esides, they do not suffer so readily from drought with 

 this mixture. The larger growing sorts, such as Primida Pcni'yi, 

 Stuarti, nivalis, Turkistanica, Cashneriana, loiigiflora, SiTckimensis, 

 grandisy and luteola, do well in the leaf mould and sand. In fact, 

 we had flower spikes of lateola, Silikiraensis, grandis, and Stuarti 

 nearly 3 feet high this summer; and P. Stuarti had w^horls of 

 flowers on the stem like Japonica, which it never develops unless 

 grown vigorously. I ripened seed of both Stuarti and Parryi. 



Primula vidgaris is one of the sw^eetest and most beautiful of our 

 spring flowers, and occurs in great profusion in many parts of the 

 country. It loves partial shade like most of the family ; and in lime- 

 stone counties the cowslip P. veris takes its place, and is also a 

 pretty spring flower. The oxlip P. elatior is much rarer, and occurs 

 wild only in a few places in England; it is, however, rather 

 common In Switzerland. Many of the hybrids between P. vulgaris 

 and veris have oxlips, but the true oxlip has a trumpet-shaped 

 flower, not flat as in Polyanthus; it has also no thickening 

 at the mouth of the tube, as in P. nd'jaris ; it is a free gTOAving 

 and interesting variety. Our garden Polyanthus is a hybrid from 

 P. vulgaris, and has no relation with the true P. elatior. 



When on a tour in the Engadine, two or three years ago, I brought 

 home several plants of Primula latifolia, which I saw in splendid 

 flower on the Albula Pass, an.l also in the Berniua; but thoy have 



