Double Varieties of the Chinese Primrose. 395 



Art. V. The Cultivation and Treatment of the Double Va- 

 rieties of the Chinese Primrose. By John Cadness, Brigh- 

 ton, Mass. 



Dear Sir, — As this is a time when it is important that 

 every possible preparation should be made for ornamenting 

 the greenhouse and conservatory for the winter months, 

 every plant being valuable that will flower freely at that sea- 

 son, and as any addition to that class is a matter of much in- 

 terest to the floricultural world, I do not know that I can di- 

 rect your attention to any that are more so, at the present 

 time, than the double-flowered white and purple Chinese 

 Primulas : plants which, for their neat and elegant habit, 

 profusion of bloom, and the length of time they keep in flow- 

 er, have but few equals ; in fact, I know of no plants that 

 will give and keep up such a mass of flowers as they will 

 through the whole winter season. 



I believe they are not yet very common, and I think but 

 little is known of their real merits; I thought, therefore, a 

 few remarks upon the culture and propagation of plants so 

 desirable, would not be uninteresting to your readers, espec- 

 ially to that portion of them to whom it a desideratum to ob- 

 tain, and keep up, a good show of flowers during the winter 

 months ; to such, these plants will be very valuable. They 

 are of easy culture, and any one, that will be guided by the 

 few plain directions I have to give, respecting their manage- 

 ment, cannot fail to grow them successfully. 



Plants of the double Primulas, imported from Europe, came 

 into my care about the middle of February, 1847. They 

 were, like most plants of a like perishable nature, in a very 

 poor state after crossing the Atlantic, but, with a little care, 

 they soon commenced growing, though at first but very 

 slowly, when I repotted them into a very light, rich earth, 

 shaking as much as possible of the old ball from them ; in a 

 few weeks they commenced growing vigorously, and sent up 

 large flower-stems in abundance; when, after treating my- 

 self and a few others, for the first time, with the sight of a 

 double-flowered Chinese primrose, I cut out all their flower- 

 stems, and gave them the advantage of the lightest and best- 



