2782 



PRENANTHES 



PRIMULA 



A. Involucre glabrous. 



B. Heads 5-7 -fid.; involucre very narrow, only 1 line thick. 

 altissima, Linn. A variable species, mostly per- 

 fectly smooth: st. 3-7 ft., slender: Ivs. membranous, all 

 stalked, ovate, heart-shaped: fls. greenish yellow; pap- 

 pus straw-colored or whitish. July-Oct. In open or 

 shade, Canada to Ga. and Tenn. 



BB. Heads 8-16-fld.; involucre broader, l%-3 lines thick. 

 c. Pappus deep cinnamon-brown. 



alba, Linn. St. 2-5 ft. high, usually smooth and glau- 

 cous or purplish: Ivs. angulate or somewhat triangular 

 halberd-form, the uppermost usually undivided: inn. 

 thyrsoid-paniculate; fls. dull white. Aug., Sept. Open 

 woods and sandy soil, Canada to Ga. and 111. B.B. 

 3:289.- Mn. 3:161. 



cc. Pappus straw-colored. 



serpentaria, Pursh (Ndbalus Fraseri, DC.). St. 

 usually about 2-4 ft. high, sometimes purple-spotted: 

 fls. purplish, greenish white or yellowish. July-Oct. 

 Ont. to Fla. and Ky. B.B. 3:289. Little known in 

 cult, and usually only a weed as a wild plant. 



AA. Involucre hirsute-pubescent. 

 racemdsa, Michx. St. 6 in. to 2 ft. high: st.-lvs. 

 mainly sessile, while they are mostly petiolate in the 

 other species here described: fls. purplish. Aug., Sept. 

 Moist open places, Canada to N. J. and Colo. B.B. 

 3:291 - F.W.BARCLAY. 



N. TAYLOR.f 



PRESTOEA (named after H. Prestoe, of the Bo- 

 tanic Gardens at Trinidad). Palmacex. Slender dwarf 

 palms with a reed-like, annulate caudex, occasionally 

 grown in the warmhouse : Ivs. long and slender-petioled, 

 pinnatisect at the base, upper segms. connate in an 

 oblong blade, 2-cleft at the apex, lower segms. narrow: 

 spathes 2, membranaceous, finally lacerate; spadices 

 short-peduncled, fuscous-pubescent, with strict erect- 

 spreading branches: fls. small, monoecious; male fls. 

 asymmetrical, calyx 3-lobed, minute, petals obliquely 

 ovate, stamens 6, ovary rudimentary; female fls. 

 larger than the male, globose, sepals reniform-rotun- 

 date, petals broadly ovate, ovary obovoid-oblong, 1- 

 celled. Three species, W. Indies and Colombia. P. 

 pubigera, Hook. f. (Hyospathe pubigera, Griseb. & 

 Wendl.). Trunk 10-12 ft. high: Ivs. 3-4 ft. long, green 

 with pale nerves, glabrous; lower segms. somewhat dis- 

 tant, linear-acuminate, 1^-2 ft. long, upper more or 

 less cohering and forming oblong or oblong-linear 

 blades: exterior spathe 2-keeled, 5 in. long, interior 

 12-15 in. long; lower branches of spadix about 6 in. 

 long, thickened at base, glomerules somewhat distant: 

 fls. minute and sessile. Trinidad. 



PRESTONIA (named for Dr. Charles Preston). 

 Apocynacese. Tall climbing pubescent or glabrous 

 shrubs, among which is P. venosa, a tender foliage plant 

 once offered in America as E chiles nutans. 



Leaves opposite, with a few well-separated pinnate 

 veins: cymes often densely corymbose or almost umbel- 

 liform, pseudo-axillary; calyx nearly 5-parted with 5 

 entire or lacerated scales inside at the base; corolla 

 salver-shaped with 5 linear erect scales below the throat, 

 which is constricted, 5-lobed; ovary 2-carpelled, ovules 

 numerous in each carpel: follicles hard, erect or diver- 

 gent at base. About 30 species, natives of Trop. Amer. 



Prestonia venosa is cultivated for the network of 

 crimson veins on its foliage. The plant blooms rarely, 

 and its flowers are inferior to Echites or Dipladenia. 

 When properly cultivated it makes a charming sub- 

 ject, but if neglected it is as worthless as a weed. It 

 can hardly be propagated by cuttings; the fleshy roots 

 are cut into pieces 1 to 2 inches long. The plant 

 demands a temperature of 85 F., with an atmosphere as 

 moist as possible. Foliage should never be syringed. 



Young plants should be raised every season, as older 

 plants become unsightly. The plant was formerly con- 

 siderably grown, being trained to a balloon-shaped wire 

 trellis. Needs warmth to bring out the markings. 

 From Lowe's "Beautiful Leaved Plants." 



venosa, Mottet (Echites nutans, Anders. Haemadic- 

 tyon venbsum, Lindl.). Lvs. opposite, ovate-lanceo- 

 late, villous beneath: fls. yellow, in pedunculate pan- 

 icles; corolla-lobes roundish, wavy. St. Vincent in the 

 W. Indies. B.M. 2473. Lowe 58. 



F. TRACY HUBBARD.! 



PRICKLY ASH: Xanthoxylum. P. Comfrey: Symphytum 

 asperrimum. P. Pear: Opuntia. P. Poppy: Argemone. 



PRIDE OF INDIA: Melia Azedarach. 

 PRIM: Ligustrum. 



PRIMROSE: Primula. Arabian P.: Arnebia cornuta. Cape P.: 

 Streptocarpus. Common P.: Primula rulgaris. English P.: Primula 

 vulgaris. Evening P.: (Enothera. 



PRIMULA (Primula veris, the "first in spring,' 1 was 

 an old appellation of one or more of the species). 

 Primulaceae. PRIMROSE. Low plants, for the most 

 part herbaceous, mostly spring-blooming but a few 

 kinds used for winter flowering, producing usually 

 clusters of attractive flowers mostly in white, pink, and 

 rose, but sometimes in red, blue, and yellow. 



Perennial (plant sometimes monocarpic or blooming 

 but once), with monopetalous salverform fls. in clus- 

 ters on scapes that arise from a radical cluster of simple 

 entire or lobed Ivs. : corolla-tube usually surpassing the 

 5-toothed or 5-cleft calyx; corolla with 5 spreading 

 lobes, which are commonly notched or retuse at the 

 end and more or less narrowed at the base; stamens 5, 

 affixed to the corolla-tube: ovary 1-loculed, with many 

 ovules on an axile placenta, and 1 undivided filiform 

 style and a capitate stigma, dehiscent by 5-10 valves: 

 bracts of the floral involucre sometimes If .-like.: the 

 fls. of some species are strongly dimorphic or trimor- 

 phic, the stamens and pistils of different lengths in 

 different fls. of the same species (Fig. 3174). See Dar- 

 win's work, "The 

 Different Forms of 

 Flowers on Plants of 

 the Same Species;" 

 this polymorphism 

 is associated with 

 cross- pollination. 

 Often the herbage is 

 covered with a loose 

 meal or farina or 

 powder. Primulas 

 are natives to the N. 

 Temp, zone, only 

 one being known in 

 the cold parts of S. 

 Amer., one in Java, 

 and sparingly in Afr. They are mostly boreal or alpine 

 plants. About a score are native to the colder parts of 

 N. Amer. Twenty-five years ago, Pax (Monographische 

 Ubersicht iiber die Arten der Gattung Primula, 

 Leipzig, 1888, and in Engler's Bot. Jahrbiicher, vol. 10), 

 admitted 145 species. Pax & Knuth, in Engler's Das 

 Pflanzenreich, hft. 22 (iv. 237), 1905, describe 208 

 species and many marked hybrids, and others have been 

 recognized since that time. The number of species 

 now known is upward of 300, with the greatest exten- 

 sion in China (about one-half the species), about 70-75 

 in the Himalayan region, and the remainder in Japan, 

 N. Amer., Eu., and Eurasia. P. mogellanica occurs in 

 Patagonia, but is apparently not in cult. The latest 

 horticultural treatment is by S. Mottet, Monographic 

 du genre primevere, Paris, 1915; this work follows 

 the systematic analysis of Pax & Knuth, which also 

 is adopted herewith. The fancier of primules must 



3174. Dimorphism in stamens and 

 style of Polyantha primrose. 



