A. W. Hill 17 



of variation, though the seed sent to England would appear to have 

 belonged to a fairly uniform type. The plants lately collected by 

 Forrest and referred by him to P. Listeri^, King, are now considered to 

 be the variety glahrescens of Franchet. Many of the specimens, how- 

 ever, show marked differences from the typical P. obconica and are also 

 no doubt quite distinct from P. ListeH, but it seems open to doubt 

 whether all of Forrest's specimens from Yang pi in Western Yunnan are 

 rightly included under P. obconica and whether some should not rather 

 be considered as belonging to a distinct though only slightly differing 

 species, intermediate perhaps between P. obconica and P. Listeri. 



P. obconica and P. sinensis. 



The history of P. obconica and of the changes in form and colour 

 which it has undergone in the comparatively few years of cultivation 

 suggests that it may afford a parallel to the case of the long-cultivated 

 Chinese Primula whose origin is still a matter of dispute and con- 

 troversy. Primula sinensis unlike P. obconica was not introduced to 

 this country as a wild plant but as a species which it is believed 

 had long been cultivated in Chinese gardens^ P. sinensis, Lindl., as 

 described and figured in the Botanical Register, 1821, t. 539, as P. prae- 

 nitens, Ker.-Gawl., and figured in the Botanical Magazine, 1825, t. 2564, 

 is not a wild form but a domesticated plant. The first figure published 

 depicts a flower with the corolla segments fimbriated and it is of 

 interest to notice that the later illustration in the Botanical Magazine 

 shows the corolla segments with the notched apex and the plant is in 

 general characters very similar to P. sinensis stellata of to-day. The 

 two pictures are of interest in connection with the history of P. ob- 

 conica, P. Forbesii, P. japonica, P. cortusoides, P. Sieboldii, P. kewensis, 

 etc. The amelioration of P. sinensis both as to flower colour and shape 



^ See Gard. Chron. 1909, November 20, p. 544, with figure. 



^ The following account of Primula praenitens is given in the Bot. Reg. vii. 1821, 

 t. 539. 



" It had been brought by Captain Bawes from the gardens at Canton, where it had 

 probably found its way from some far more northern quarter of the Chinese Empire. 

 Samples in a dried state had been previously submitted by Mr Reeves, a gentleman in the 

 employment of the East Indian Co. at Canton." 



In the figare the corolla segments are fimbriated and the calyx has many lobes ; the 

 account continues — "The plant not having been known in its wild state, can we be sure 

 that the multiplication of the segments of the calyx does not arise from loxoriance induced 

 by exotic cultivation?...." 



Joum. of Gen. ii - 2 



