PRIMATES 



4817 



PRINCE ALBERT 



institution, and has not as yet been adopted to 

 any extent in countries other than the United 

 States. 



Consult Merrlam's Primary Elections; Fan- 

 ning' s Select Articles on Direct Primaries. 



PRIMATES, prima'teez, the highest order 

 in the animal kingdom. It includes man and 

 those animals which are nearest to him in phys- 

 ical characteristics (see list of related subjects, 

 below). The name is derived from the Latin 

 primus, meaning first. The order primates is a 

 division of the class mammalia. 



Related Subject*. For a discussion of the 

 chief characteristics of the animals included in 

 the order and for other points of interest see the 

 following articles : 



Ape 



Aye- Aye 



Baboon 



Chimpanzee 



Gibbon 



Gorilla 



Lemur 



Mammals 



Man 



Monkey 



Orang-utan 



Zofilogy 



PRIMOGENITURE, primojen'i ture, a rule 

 of law which requires that the father's real 

 estate be left to his eldest son, or to the.lat- 

 ter's male heirs. The ancient peoples recog- 

 nized some such procedure, but the term as 

 now used describes a rule that grew out of the 

 military necessities of the feudal period, when 

 it was deemed expedient to strengthen the 

 power of the son first able to bear arms for the 

 king. In England, where it was introduced by 

 the Normans 1 , primogeniture operated only when 

 a person died without making a will. In that 

 case, the eldest son succeeded to the real estate. 

 If the son, likewise, was dead, the property 

 went to his eldest son. Only when the male 

 line was extinct did the property pass to the 

 daughters, who divided it jointly among them 

 except in the case of the Crown, which went to 

 the eldest. The rule, formerly common in Eu- 

 rope, survives chiefly in the English system and 

 in determining succession to the Crown in sev- 

 eral European states. 



PRIM 'ROSE, a low, silvery-leaved, flower- 

 IIIK plant which formerly grew wild in English 

 fields but is now a favorite house and garden 

 r. The primrose seems to have been be- 

 (1 by many of the poets, for they frc- 

 itly refer to it; and not only was it popular 

 with them, but the Earl of Beaconsficld, a 

 noted English statesman, chose it as the flower 

 of his party, and women whose husbands were 

 Tories wore it on their hats. The short, central 

 k is hidden by a rosette of broad, hair- 

 leaves, and the fragrant blossoms, rang- 

 302 



ing in color from pinkish-yellow to deep purple, 

 grow in clusters on long, separate stems. Be- 

 sides a variety cultivated as house plants, there 

 are among other 

 species the cowslip, 

 a native of Euro- 

 pean mountain 

 slopes, and the 

 evening primrose, 

 both growing wild, 

 the latter blooming 

 at dusk. 



PRINCE, printz, 

 a royal or honor- 

 able title, derived 

 from a Latin word 

 meaning first. The 

 Latin historians 

 used the word to 

 describe the civil 

 chiefs of the Ger- 

 man tribes. It was 

 the chiefs (princi- 

 pcs) of the allied 

 Latin tribes that 

 constituted, in its 

 first stage, the Ro- 

 man Senate. In A prlmr ose by 

 the first council, or A yellow prii 



i r TTT-I him, 



parliament, of Wil- And it was nothing more, 

 liam the Conqueror -WORDSWORTH: Peter Bell. 

 (see WILLIAM I), the earls and barons were 

 called the princes of his realm. As time passed, 

 the title of prince came to have several mean- 

 ings, but they all trace back to the first use of 

 the word. 



On the continent of Europe the title is still 

 employed with its old meaning; the families 

 using it are eminent, among the first families of 

 the land, but they are not connected with tin 

 reigning family, nor do they exercise sovereign 

 powers. In England, in the strict language of 

 heraldry, which faithfully reflects early cus- 

 toms, some of the classes of peers arc still en- 

 f it led to the old address of prince, but prac- 

 tically its use is restricted to members of the 

 royal family; even in their case, with the ex- 

 ception of the Prince of Wales, it is a courtesy 

 title, not one of right; they are and remain 

 commoners, unless raised to the peerage by the 

 Crown. See PRINCE OF WALES; NODIUTY. 



PRINCE ALBERT, popularly known as 



ELE< INCE ALBERT and as the WHITE 



COOL CITY, is a city in Saskatchewan, slightly 



south of the geographical center of the prov- 



It is situated on the North Saskatche- 



a river's brim 

 mrose was to 



