A. W. Hill 6 



with flowers of a " warm rose tint " and the managing director of 

 Ware's Nurseries has sent me the following account of the origin and 

 development of their rose-coloured forms : 



"The first noticeable tendency (with us) of Primula obconica to 

 produce other than the pale lilac flowers occurred about twenty years 

 ago, when amongst a batch of many hundreds of seedlings (from seed 

 obtained from a Continental source), five or six plants showed a deeper 

 coloration beyond anything we had ever previously noticed. These 

 plants were isolated, cross fertilized, and the seed saved separately from 

 each plant. The resulting seedlings produced a fair amount of rose 

 colours of varying shades. The best of these as regards depth of 

 colouring, size of bloom, and good habit were retained, the remainder 

 being destroyed. These were again cross fertilized and the selection 

 carried on as before. Year after year seedlings were raised by this 

 means (the colour becoming more intense each generation) until at last 

 we reached the climax, that is, a deep self-rose of good habit and large 

 flowers. In each successive batch of seedlings we always found one or 

 two plants with extra deep and a greater number of serrations and of 

 good colour. These we made the seed-bearing parent, as after repeated 

 trials we found the serration was more pronounced in the oflfspring than 

 when these plants were used as pollen bearers only, and so together 

 with the development of the desired rose colour, the fimbriation or 

 excess of serrations was proceeding at the same time in each successive 

 generation " (cf. Plate I, fig. 3). 



Messrs Vilmorin of Paris had also at this time produced a rose form 

 of P. obconica^, but it is not possible to determine whether the rose 

 break originated in one place only or in several nurseries at about the 

 same time, though the latter suggestion seems the more probable^ 



A form apparently very similar to these early rose or pink varieties 

 is still to be seen planted out in the beds of the Temperate House at 

 Kew where it has been grown undisturbed for many years (Plate I, 

 figs. 3—5). 



A rose variety' formed the starting point of the experiments carried 

 out in the gardens of the Duchess of Bedford. 



^ Rev. Hort. 1897, p. 141, annoanced in their catalogue for 1898 as " P. obconica k 

 grande fleur rose vif." 



2 See also /. c. 1899, p. 548, with coloured plate. The variety "Bose Chamoise" was 

 catalogued by Messrs Vilmorin in 1900. 



* P. obconica rosea, seed purchased from D. W. Thomson, Edinburgh, who obtained 

 seeds from Stewart and Co., Covent Garden. The origin of the seed was very possibly 

 continental. 



