BALFOUR—NEW SPECIES OF PRIMULA. 177 
there are in the foliage and in the inflorescence and flower, and 
the specific name is justified. 
In the first place, it is a much more foliaged plant than is 
P. prolifera. Its rosette has a dozen and more of leaves. No 
specimen of P. prolifera shows more than five leaves. In the 
form of leaf and in the venation P. khasiana is very different 
from P. prolifera. The leaves are fairly typically lanceolate, 
tapering to a point, and downwards are narrowed but slightly 
into a broad hardly distinct petiole, whereas in P. prolifera 
they are oblanceolate or obovate spathulate, have a rounded apex, 
and conspicuously taper downwards into a narrowly winged long 
petiole. The primary veins which in P. prolifera come off from 
the midrib at about a right angle, and spread patulously out- 
wards, in P. khasiana diverge from the midrib ascendingly 
forming an acute angle with it. The bracts are distinctive. 
In P. prolifera they are linear-lanceolate barely half the length 
of the pedicels; here in P. khastana they exceed the pedicel and 
flower together, and moreover are strap-shaped often foliaceous 
with margins undulate. Wallich had seen a plant showing this 
character of the bracts in the lowermost whorl of flowers, and 
he regarded it as a deformed state of the ordinary bract condition . 
in P. prolifera. But the plants we have in which it appears have 
all the other characters to which I am referring separating them 
from P. prolifera, and in no preserved specimen of true P. pro- 
lifera do I see an indication of the character. The flowers 
themselves are altogether much larger than in P. prolifera, the 
calyx at least a third larger and with longer lobes, the whole 
quite half the length of the wide corolla tube. In P. prolifera 
the calyx is about one-third of the length of the narrower 
corolla tube. The annulus in P. khasiana is much larger than 
in P. prolifera, and the inside of the tube is conspicuously rugose 
and puberulous, characters not seen in the flowers of P. prolifera 
which have been examined. The stamens of the long-styled 
flower in P. khasiana are inserted higher up the corolla tube 
than in P. prolifera, and their interposed annulus is also much 
larger. In the short-styled flower the stamens are nearer the 
mouth of the corolla in P. khasiana than in P. prolifera. The 
short style is longer in P. khasiana. 
Taking all these characters, the specimens available in- 
dicate a form in P. khasiana distinct from P. prolifera— 
to what degree further investigation must decide. It is to 
be hoped that exploring collectors will soon obtain material 
sufficient to enable us to decide. Let me here say for the 
benefit of collectors that they should bear in mind Sir George 
King’s suggestion that the flower colour may not be yellow as 
it is in P. prolifera. a7] 
C 
