644 



PRATIA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



PRIMULA. 



effective. Few plants are more desirable. 

 Japan. 



PRATIA. P. angulata is a pretty 

 plant for the rock garden, creeping 

 over the soil like the Fruiting Duck- 

 weed ; the flowers white, and like a 

 dwarf Lobelia, numerous in autumn, 

 giving place to violet- coloured berries 

 about the size of Peas. It is fairly 

 hardy, and grows best in moist dis- 

 tricts, with a mild winter, such as 

 Cornwall, where charming carpets of 

 this little plant are not uncommon in 

 shady places. New Zealand. Syn. 

 Lobelia littoralis. A second kind, P. 

 begonifolia, is from the Himalayas, 

 and is larger in all its parts, with 

 downy leaves and purple berries. 



Pratia angulata. 



P. ARENARIA. An interesting addition 

 to these little plants. The flowers are 

 about the size of those of the old ones, and 

 the growth is a little larger. All these 

 dwarf things are now very welcome when 

 everybody is making a rock garden. 



PRIMULA (Primrose}. There is so 

 much charm and beauty among Prim- 

 roses that no garden is complete without 

 them, and there is scarcely a species 

 not worth cultivating. They have a 

 great diversity of habit and growth. 

 Some are at home on the sunny slopes 

 of the rock garden, others in shade, 

 many make excellent border flowers, 

 and a few exotic species are at home 

 in the woodland with our common 

 Primrose. The family contains nearly 

 a hundred different sorts, and we have 

 therefore confined ourselves to the 

 most distinct and desirable kinds. 

 There is so much confusion among 

 certain sections, particularly in the 

 alpine and the Himalayan species, 

 that we have not attempted to deal 

 with these exhaustively ; while others, 

 such as P. nivalis, are too little known 

 in gardens to render it necessary for 

 us to speak of them. 



P. AMCENA (Caucasian Primrose) is allied 

 to our common Primrose, but is distinct. 

 The corolla is purplish lilac in bud or when 

 recently expanded, but turns bluer after 

 a few days, and the blooms come out 

 before the snow has left the ground. It 

 is so much earlier than the common Prim- 

 rose, that while that species is in flower, 

 amasna has finished blooming, and has 

 sent up a strong tuft of leaves very much 

 like that sent up by the common Primrose 

 after its own flowers are faded. It is one 

 of the best plants for the spring garden 

 and the rock garden. Division of the 

 root. Caucasus. 



P. AURICULA (Common Auricula). In 

 a wild state this is one of the many charm- 

 ing Primulas that rival Gentians, Pinks, 

 and Forget-me-Nots in making the alpine 

 fields so exquisitely beautiful. Possessing 

 a vigorous constitution and sporting into 

 many varieties when raised from seed, it 

 attracted early attention from lovers of 

 flowers ; its more striking forms were 

 fixed and classified, and it became a 

 " florists' flower." Its cultivated varie- 

 ties may be roughly thrown into two 

 classes first, self-coloured varieties, or 

 those which have the outer and larger 

 portion of the flower of one colour or 

 shaded, the centre or eye white or yellow, 

 and the flowers and other parts usually 

 smooth, and not powdery ; second, those 

 with flower and stems thickly covered 

 with a white powdery matter or " paste." 

 The handsomest of the first kinds are 

 known by the name of " alpines," to dis- 

 tinguish them from the florists' varieties, 

 and are the hardiest of all. The florists' 

 favourites are distinguished by the dense 

 mealy matter with which the flowers are 

 covered. They are divided by florists into 

 four sections green-edged, grey-edged, 

 white-edged, and selfs. In the " green- 

 edged " class the throat of the flower is 

 usually yellow or yellowish ; this is sur- 

 rounded by a ring, varying in width, of 

 white powdery matter, and this again by 

 another ring of some dark colour, and 

 beyond this a green edge, which is some- 

 times \ inch in width. The outer portion 

 of the flower is really a monstrous develop- 

 ment of the petal into a leaf-like substance 

 identical in texture with the leaves. The 

 " grey-edged " varieties have the margin 

 of a green leafy texture, but this is so 

 thickly covered with powder that the 

 colour cannot be distinctly seen. The 

 same occurs in the " white-edged " kinds, 

 the difference being in the thickness and 

 hue of the powdery matter. In fact, the 

 terms " green-edged," " grey-edged," and 

 " white-edged " are simply used to indi- 

 cate slight differences between flowers 

 having an abnormal development of the 

 petals into leafy substance. It is a curious 

 fact that between the white and the grey 

 the line of demarcation is imaginary, for 

 both classes occasionally produce green- 



