38O THE ALPINE FLORA 



must not be expected from garden grown seed, since 

 cross fertilisation is almost more the rule than the 

 exception. Seedlings should be planted in permanent 

 quarters as soon as may be. The variability of require- 

 ment make it necessary to give brief cultural notes to 

 each species, rather than attempt to deal collectively with 

 the subject. Nor is it possible in this work to make a 

 selection from the Chinese, Himalayan or other such 

 novelties. The characteristics are a five-toothed calyx ; 

 a long, funnel-shaped corolla, with five-lobed limb, 

 usually emarginate. 



P. elatior* (PL LXXI) : the "Bardfield" Oxlip and 

 parent of the garden Polyanthus, probably a natural 

 hybrid between officinalis and acaulis. This is the 

 beautiful pale yellow species, with large flowers in 

 umbels, which is found on moist and shady mountain 

 slopes, where it flowers in the first days which follow the 

 disappearance of the snows. 



P. officinalis (PI. LXX1). (Herbe a la paralysie) : 

 Cowslip. Differs from the above in the smaller, scented 

 flowers, with five orange marks on the throat ; by the 

 inflated calyx, with a whitish tomentum. Grows in the 

 lower meadows. March-May. Likes limestone. 



P. acaulis (P. grandiflora or vulgaris). The large and 

 charming Primrose of French Switzerland. It is curious 

 to note now this species seems to shrink from the 

 German language and follows close along the inner side 

 of the frontiers of French Switzerland, where it spreads 

 its fine, lemon-yellow flowers in every cool place of the 

 plains and sheltered valleys. It thrives best in rich, 

 dampish loam, and in rockeries should be given a north or 

 north-west aspect. 



The above three species have yielded by artificial 

 hybridisation a multitude of different forms, whose 



