304 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [Sbss. lxxix. 



Che-pa-to are stations a little further west than Ichang, 

 and the specimens figured seem to tell us that in this form 

 P. obconica, Hance, has a distribution of some extent in 

 Western Hupeh and Eastern Szechwan. 



Plates XXIV and XXV show specimens of the P. obconica, 

 Hance, of cultivation, and they fairly represent an ordinary 

 form that is met with in greenhouses. That they are the 

 same form as was collected by Maries at Ichang and also 

 by Wilson and Delavay is beyond doubt. 



What are the characters of this P. obconica, Hance ? 1 



We have a multicipital perennial of glaucous hue with 

 a cluster of petiolate cordate rotundate or elliptic or oblong 

 or ovate leaves coming from the crown. The plant forms 

 a distinct rhizome — well seen in Delavay 's specimen, No. 

 317 bis — upon which the remains of previous generations 

 of leaves are visible, and from this rhizome short stolons 

 may be given off, ending in the leaf-tufts. The length of 

 petiole and size of lamina differ somewhat with the position 

 of the leaf in the cluster. The petiole may about equal 

 the length of the lamina, be shorter or longer than it. Its 

 base is dilated into a definite clasping vagina. The blade 

 is leathery, always obtuse at apex, cordate at base, and the 

 margins are slightly undulate or sinuate with low wide 

 crenatures, or sometimes with blunt or acutish shallow lobes, 

 and always there is present a minute denticulation usually 

 caused only by the projecting corneous hydathodal end of 

 the primary or also secondary veins. 



The whole plant has a pubescence of short hairs, but in 



1 The following is a transcription of Hance's description in Journal 

 of Botany, xviii (1879), 234 :— 



"Primula obconica, Hance, sp. nov. Foliis rosulatis tenuilius 

 subrotundo-ovalibus basi cordatis lobis saepius incumbentibus apice 

 obtusissimis margine repandis supra parce hirtis opacis subtus palli- 

 dioribus nervis pilosis petiolis iis aequilongis fulvo-villosis, scapis 

 folia 2-3-plo superantibus pilosulis 10-20-floris, floribus umbellatis, 

 involucri foliolis lineari-setaceis pedicellia longis divaricatis subtriplo 

 brevioribus, calyce pubero e basi acutissima obconica ad trientem 

 longitudinis in dentes latissime semiovatos inucronulatos diviso, eorollae 

 In ]Micrateriformis roseae tubo calycem duplo superante lobis oblongis 

 retusis, capsula parva globosa, stylo tenuiter capillari tubum corollinum 

 fere adaequante. 



"In prov. Hupeb, circa Ichang, vere 1879, coll. cl. T. Wattevs. 

 (Herb, propr. n. 21,000.) 



" Affinis P. sinensi, Lindl., P. cortusoidi, Linn., et P. Kauffmcmnianae, 

 Rgl. ; a cunctis tamen, foliis haud lobatis calycisque forma egregie 

 distincta." 



