A. W. Hill 11 



Variation or Hybridisation, 



That Primula obconica as cultivated to-day is a totally different 

 plant from the wild species introduced from China in 1879-80 is a 

 perfectly obvious fact, but as to the cause or causes which may underlie 

 the changes which have taken place there is a considerable difference of 

 opinion. Some of those who have worked for many years on this plant 

 and to whom several of our modem improvements are due contend that 

 the amelioration of this species is due in the main to hybridisation 

 with other species of the genus, while others who have been equally 

 successful in raising new varieties protest against this view and 

 claim that the improvements are entirely due to selection and cross- 

 fertilization of the best forms within the species. It is unfortunate 

 that experiments with this plant have been undertaken from the 

 horticultural rather than from the purely scientific point of view and 

 that the results which tend to be matters of conjecture and a&sumption 

 have been accepted in many cases as proved fact. For there has been 

 a tendency in some quarters to assume that because a given variation 

 appeared to fit in with a preconceived idea or with expectation, 

 therefore such a variation was due to a definite experiment or series of 

 experiments. 



In order to arrive at a conclusion as to the right explanation of the 

 course of events displayed by the history of P. chconica it will be 

 necessary to examine the evidence somewhat in detail. 



In the foregoing pages it has been shown that for some ten to 

 fifteen years after its introduction P. obconica displayed but little 

 tendency to vary. A slight increase in the size and slight changes in 

 the colour of the flowers were recorded such as would be expected 

 under artificial cultivation, but the bulk of the seedlings tended to come 

 more or less true to the original form. According to Messrs Vilmorin* 

 the first variations in P. obconica were noticed in 1892. In England 

 variation both in size and colour is recorded on several occasions 

 between 1886 and 1893^ but compared with present-day forms the 

 improvement of the plant does not appear to have been very striking 

 until about fifteen years after its introduction. Messrs Ware name 

 about 1890 as their starting point, while Messrs Veitch consider the year 

 1898, in which their Feltham nurseries were opened, as the date from 



' S. Mottet in Le Jardin, 1901, p. 8. 



2 See especially The Garden, 1888, p. 550, 1890, p. 354, and 1893, p. 242 ; Joum, Hort. 

 1887, p. 417 ; Gard. Chron. 1890, p. 175. 



