452 GENERAL REVIEW. 



China and Japan, where they have long been cultivated and 

 probably much improved. P. sinensis and P. japonica are 

 especially well-known examples ; and P. cortusoides (P. Sieboldii) 

 is undoubtedly one of the finest of all Primroses, and its seed- 

 lings, like those of the last-named species, come of different 

 colour and vigour. From the Himalayas we have yet to im- 

 port some striking species. P. sikkimmensis and P. Stuartii 

 are noble yellow -flowered kinds, which cover hundreds of 

 acres at a considerable altitude on the Himalayan slopes, 

 much as our Cowslips cover verdant hillsides here at home. 

 For a full illustrated account of the garden Primroses, see the 

 ' Garden,' ix. 101. Mr A. W. Bennet contributes the fol- 

 lowing note on hybrid Primulas to the * Gardeners' Chron- 

 icle,' 1875, P- 8l 3 : "Professor Kerner of Innsbruck has re- 

 printed from the Austrian 'Botanische Zeitschrift' a description 

 of the hybrid Primulacea of the Alps, numbering thirty-one 

 in all twenty-five belonging to the genus Primula, four to 

 Androsace, and two to Soldanella. Of the hybrid Primulas by 

 far the majority (twenty) are included in the section Auricu- 

 lastrum, the remaining five in that of Primulastrum, Schott. 

 No intercrossing is known between these two sections. In the 

 section Primulastrum all the hybrids belong to the sub-section 

 Euprimula, Schott P. acaulis (vulgar is, Linn.) showing the 

 greatest sexual affinity for the others. In the section Auricu- 

 lastrum, P. Auricula and minima are the species which show 

 the greatest tendency to hybridise, although these two species 

 cannot be made to fertilise one another. These hybrid Primu- 

 las are much more easily cultivated by the vegetative modes of 

 reproduction than their parents, and usually exhibit a combina- 

 tion of the characters of their parent forms. Of ' derivation 

 hybrids ' i.e., crosses between a hybrid and one of its parent 

 forms the author only knows one or two instances. Of these 

 hybrid Primulas not a few have been described as species : 

 among the most interesting of which are P. brevistylis, D.C., 

 between acaulis (vulgaris] and officinalis (veris) ; P. pubescens, 

 Jacq., the ancestor of our garden ' Auriculas,' between Auricula 

 and hirsuta; P. alpina, Schl'eischer (P. rhcetica, Koch), between 

 Auricula and viscosa ; P. Florkeana, Schrad., between glutinosa 

 and minima; and P. venusta, Hort., between Auricula and 

 carniolica" The late Dean Herbert raised a powdered Auri- 

 cula and Primula helvetica from seeds of P. nivalis ; and P. 

 helvetica also from seeds of P. viscosa, and from these obser- 

 vations he concludes these Swiss Primulas to be local varieties 

 of one species or type (see 'Trans. Hort. Soc.,' iv. 19). 



It is curious to observe that nearly all the European forms 



