PresideJit's Address. 77 



puzzled ine much, not growing with any vigour, and failed to 

 llovver them until this summer, when I tried them planted tight 

 between flat stones. So treated, however, they have done much 

 better, and have flowered fairly well. This is a plant which will 

 repay any trouble, as it is one of the most beautiful and showy 

 Primulas we have. I shall never forget the sight of these plants 

 growing oiit of the crevices of the rock about 6000 feet in the 

 Engadine in August; they were most vigorous and luxuriant, every 

 plant covered with flowers, many of the stems 1)eing fully a foot 

 long, with a bunch of drooping rich purple flowers at the top. 



All the P. farinosa section are free flowerers, from scotica to 

 longiflova. P. scotica, our native Primula, which grows abundantly 

 in Orkney and round the coast of Caithness and Sutherland, is apt 

 to be lost in winter, as it is not a deep rooter, and during frost is 

 thrown out of the ground, when, if not noticed and replanted, it 

 soon dies. It is, however, easily raised from seed, which should 

 always be collected and sown at once, as the plants so raised are 

 always more vigorous than the old plants. Of P. farinosa, which 

 is abundant all over the limestone country in Durham and York- 

 shire, and also near West Linton on the skirts of the Pentlands, 

 there are a number of different coloured varieties. I have five 

 distinct shades, from pure white to the richest rose colour; and 

 this summer a plant was sent to me from the Dolomite country, 

 in the Tyrol, with striped Howers. P. auriculata belongs also to 

 this section, and is a free growing handsome plant ; but as far as 

 my experience has gone I do not think it is quite hardy, and it 

 is advisable to keep a duplicate or two in a cold frame during 

 the winter ; it also springs freely from seed, I may mention that 

 in sowing seed of all Primulas it is better to do so at the time 

 the seed is gathered, as it germinates more quickly when this is done ; 

 if kept over till the spring it will sometimes lie for a year, or perhaps 

 two 3'ears before starting. 



Primula nivalis Turkidanica, has thriven wonderfully this sum- 

 mer in the leaf mould and sand ; the leaves are now nearly a foot 

 long and three inches wide ; it has thrown up a strong flower spike 

 about nine inches long with about twenty-four flowers at the top, the 

 flowers all individually small, something in shape like those of P. 

 erosa, but of a dark purple colour. The flower stem is thickly 

 covered with farinose powder ; there is, however, no powder on the 

 leaves. The flower stem was so late in rising that it set no seed. Of 

 a quantity of imported seed of this plant sold two years ago, none 

 of mine sprang, nor did that of any of my friends. Primula 

 imrpurea (Royle), a plant somewhat resembling nivalis Turlistanica 

 and Shiarti, seems to be more difficult to grow. A nice young 



