146 THE PKIMROSE FAMILY 



the well-known demesne of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society. By patient cross-fertilising and selection he 

 managed to produce at first some blossoms of a cold 

 slaty colour, but year by year he got better results, and 

 now there are some fine varieties with deep, rich blue 

 corollas. Exegit monumentum, for every succeeding 

 spring these pretty flowers revive in those who enjoyed 

 his friendship the memory of that gentle enthusiast. 

 It remains for some disciple to raise from Mr. Wilson's 

 stock a variety with double blue flowers. 



One variety of the common primrose defies the skill 

 of most of us to cultivate. It bears double flowers of 

 crimson maroon; not the common double crimson, 

 which is far from a satisfactory colour too near 

 magenta but a full, strong tint which is only matched 

 in spring by some of the dark wallflowers. It grows 

 luxuriantly in Irish gardens alongside of the double 

 blue hepatica, which is the despair of English and 

 Scottish gardeners. 



The birdseye primrose the only other British species 

 is a most refined beauty, flowering at midsummer, 

 when it sends up from among its mealy leaves a stalk 

 six or eight inches high, carrying an umbel of small, 

 rosy-lilac flowers with yellow eyes. I shall not forget 

 the agreeable thrill imparted by the first sight of this 

 pretty plant, growing in a colony upon a wet roadside 

 bank in Cumberland. It does not occur in Ireland, 

 and in the north of Scotland, by dispensing with a 

 flower stem, has obtained specific rank as P. scotica in 

 the classification of some botanists. 



Among exotic primroses, few are cultivated except 



