218 HARDY PERENNIALS AND 



As its specific name denotes, its foliage has a bold margin, as if 

 stitched with white silken thread, and the whole plant is thickly 

 covered with a mealy substance. So distinct in these respects is 

 this lovely species that, with, perhaps, one exception, it may 

 easily be identified from all others, P. auricula marginata being 

 the one that most resembles it, that species also being edged and 

 densely covered with farina, but its foliage is larger, not toothed, 

 and its flowers yellow. 



P. marginata has bright but light violet flowers on very short 

 scapes, seldom more than Sin. high; these and the calyx also 



FIG. 77. PRIMULA MARGINATA. 

 (Two-thirds natural size.) 



are very mealy. The little leaves are of various shapes, and 

 distinctly toothed, being about the size of the bowl of a 

 dessert spoon. They are neatly arranged in tufts on a short 

 footstalk, which becomes surrounded with young growths, all 

 as clear in their markings as the parent plant, so that a well 

 grown specimen of three years or even less becomes a beautiful 

 object, whether it is on rockwork or in a cold frame. - 



The flowers are produced and remain in good form for two or 

 three weeks on strong plants, and for nearly the whole year the 

 plant is otherwise attractive. 



