ioo THE UNHEATED GREENHOUSE 



display can be made in early winter and spring out of 

 materials such as these, with a few bulbs and hardy greenery 

 to match. 



It is more interesting still to grow uncommon plants. One 

 such, not to wander from the Primrose, is a Javan species, 

 which has been known for perhaps half a century to explorers 

 by the name of the Royal Cowslip, but is, nevertheless, 

 comparatively new to cultivation, and is still rarely met with. 

 The climate of Java is tropical, but it has lofty mountains, 

 whereon, at an elevation of some 9000 ft., Primula imperialis 

 is found in company with Buttercups, Violets, Honeysuckle, 

 and other familiar English plants, choosing, however, only to 

 grow in moist, cool spots, under the shade of bushes or in 

 thickets. As far as is known, this particular species is to be 

 found in no other part of the world. To give some idea of 

 this giant of its race, it may be said that it sends up a stout 

 flower-stem some 3 ft. high, from a rosette of very large and 

 long, Primrose-like leaves. The flowers, which are borne 

 in whorls in this respect resembling some other Asiatic 

 Primulas are of a shade of yellow, deepening into orange, 

 peculiar to itself, and it is in all ways, when well grown, a fine 

 and striking plant. The difficulty has been to get foreign 

 seed to germinate, but ripe seed has now been perfected by 

 home-grown plants, and probably it only needs, like so many 

 of the Primrose family, to be sown as soon as ripe to sprout 

 quickly and freely. The Royal Cowslip may be given as a 

 type of many another rare and beautiful plant which will 

 adapt itself, under loving culture, to the cold greenhouse. 

 Nevertheless, it takes some enthusiasm, no less than pains- 

 taking, to enable us to get off the beaten track of everyday 

 garden routine and seek out for ourselves the far-off treasures 

 of distant lands. 



