2 History of Primula 



much puzzled how to bring out living plants 1100 miles to the coast at 

 Shanghai. I, of course, took plants of the things I thought were best 

 for garden purposes, but Ferns and herbaceous plants were altogether 

 out of the question. I thought, however, that many seeds would 

 germinate if they were kept in soil, so I collected surface soil from 

 Ferns and Primulas, and other plants. This was kept in an old wine 

 box and eventually taken to Hong-Kong. I took this home twelve 

 months afterwards and the soil was ' sown ' in a glass house. The first 

 thing that came up was Primula obconica in large quantities, several 

 shrubs, and a lot of ferns \" 



Sir Joseph Hooker, writing in the Botanical Magazine^, states that 

 the plant is probably very variable and that the earliest flowering 

 specimens sent by Mr Veitch were less hairy and had rounder and 

 nearly entire leaves and very much smaller flowers than that figured in 

 the plate. 



The flowers are of a pale lilac colour with a yellow eye, and the 

 perianth segments, which are rather narrow, show a deep apical notch. 

 Messrs Veitch =* speak of the colour in the virgin species as an "undecided 

 lilac," while according to another writer* the flowers are said to be 

 pinkish-white and it is suggested that white forms might be raised by 

 careful selection. From a notice in The Garden^, we learn that "the 

 flowers though somewhat small are of a pleasing mauve tint. The 

 (almost entire) leaves are large and broad and they form a distinct 

 tuft which lies almost flat on the soil." In the Botanical Magazine on 

 the other hand the leaves are represented as upstanding with lobulate- 

 dentate edges ^ 



With these preliminary remarks as to the incidence of variation, the 

 detailed history of our modern forms may now be examined. 



In attempting to trace the history of Primula obconica under 

 cultivation it will be convenient to arrange the facts under different 

 headings such as colour of the flowers, size, shape, fimbriation of the 

 corolla lobes and doubling and lastly questions connected with hybrid- 

 isation. 



1 The Garden, November 22, 1890, p. 479. 



2 Bot. Mag. 1881, t. 6582. 



3 Hort. Veitchii, p. 282. 



•* Gardeners' Chronicle, October 28, 1882, p. 565. 

 5 The Garden, June 25, 1881, p. 655. 



" See also The Garden for 1884, September 6, p. 236, the perianth segments are drawn 

 with an apical notch. 



