HERBACEOUS PLANTS 



PRIMULA WILSONI, Dunn. 

 Card. Chron. 1902, vol. xxxi. p. 413. 



Discovered in Yunnan. South China, by Pere Delavay and Dr. Henry, 

 and introduced to cultivation from the same locality. 



Of the section of the genus of which Primula japonica is an example, 

 it is intermediate in habit between that species and the Javanese P. 

 imperialis. 



The flowers are about 1 in. in diameter, reddish-purple in colour, sweet- 

 scented, in whorls of five or six each. 



RANUNCULUS LYALLII, Hook. f. 



Bot. Mag. t. 6888; Masters in Gard. Chron. 1881, vol. xv. p. 724, fig. 131 ; The Garden, 

 1879, vol. xv. p. 391, with fig. 



This beautiful buttercup, justly called the monarch of the genus, 

 commonly known as the " Rookwood Lily," or "Mountain Lily," was first 

 discovered by Dr. Lyall on the west coast of the Southern Island of 

 New Zealand, during an exploring expedition, between the years 1847- 

 1849. A difficult plant to cultivate, many thousands of seeds sent have 

 failed to germinate, nor will they grow on the plains of New Zealand. 



The late Mr. Anderson Henry, said to have flowered the plant before 

 1864, remarked that the seeds remained dormant for four or five years. 



Messrs. Veitch imported it in quantity from New Zealand through 

 Peter C. M. Veitch, succeeded in flowering it in May 1879, and exhibited 

 it before the Royal Horticultural Society. 



RICHARDIA HASTATA, Hook. 



Syns. Calla ? oculata, Lindl. 



Gard. Chron. 1859, p. 788 ; The Garden, 1880, vol. xviii. pi. cclxi. p. 596 ; Bot. Mag. 

 t. 5176 ; Watson in Gard. Chron. 1892, vol. xii. p. 123. 



A hardy aroid received from Natal in 1857, smaller but resembling in 

 foliage the well-known Richardia africana. The spathe, which rises 

 above the leaves, is about 3 in. long and 1| in. across the mouth : in form 

 bell-shaped with an oblique limb ; in colour a clear rich yellow with a deep 

 purple eye. 



RODGERSIA PINNATA, Franch., var. ALBA. 



Gard. Chron. 1905, vol. xxxvii. p. 398 (Report of K.H.S. Floral Committee). 



A white flowered form of the type introduced from Mount Wa in 

 Western China. 



It forms a strong-growing herbaceous plant with handsome foliage 

 showing the pinnate arrangement of the leaflets very prominently, and 

 with a general resemblance to those of the Horse-chestnut. 



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