1912-13.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 189 



shrubby species with which Pax has united them, gives us 

 no key to their phylogeny. 



The other three species in Pax's section may form the 

 nucleus of one section in which will fall to be included 

 certain other Chinese and Tibetan forms of more recent dis- 

 covery, namely : Prim ula Forrest ii, Balf. fil. ; P. rufa, Balf. 

 fiL; P. Monbeigii, Balf. fil.; P. psevdobracteata, Petitm. : 

 P. Dubernordiona, G. Forrest; and then I think also this 

 is the assemblage with which we should unite the 

 Baluchistan P. Lacei, Hemsley et Watt, which has hitherto, 

 by some mischance, found itself united with plants like 

 P. jioriburida, Wallich. P. Aucheri, Jaub. et Spach. and 

 P. verticiUata, Forsk.. with which it shows no special 

 features of resemblance. 



Pax's section of the Bullatae may be recast as a 

 thoroughly natural one. including at the present time nine 

 species. The recast is the object of this communication, 

 in which I have written out for publication technical 

 characters of the group along with descriptions of the 

 included species, two of which are new and described here 

 for the rirst time. 



The group is a remarkable one. First of all, one must 

 notice the suffruticose habit and the thick woody stems 

 that are developed in the species. In P. Locei, Hemsley et 

 Watt, it is true, the lignitication and secondary growth of 

 the stem does not progress to the degree attained in other 

 species — so much I judge from the few specimens of the 

 species available for comparison. — but the undershrub 

 cushion habit is there. Mr. Forrest describes P. Duber- 

 nardia/na, G. Forrest, as "forming dense cushions of 

 one to two feet in diameter."' and the specimen I show 

 of P. Forrestii, Balf. fil., tells, better than any descrip- 

 tion, of this exceptional construction in the genus 

 Primula. A photograph of P. Forrestii, Balf. fil., 

 taken by Mr. Forrest in its habitat in Yunnan, has 

 been reproduced in the " Gardeners' Chronicle *' for 1910. 

 and gives a vivid picture of the adaptation of the 

 plant to its environment. 



Perennating as they do in the form of compact cushion 

 undershrubs, their leaves, spent so far as active assimilating 

 work is concerned, still serve the purpose associated with 



