PRIMROSES AND AURICULAS 



PRIMROSES AND AURICULAS 



Natural Order PiiiMULACE.*:. Genus Primida 



Primula (Latin, j^rlmus, tirst, from the early date of flowering). This 

 typical genus of an important Natural Order comprises about eighty 

 species of perennial herbs, with radical leaves and scape-borne flowers. 

 Tliese arc white, yellow, rosy, or purple, borne in umbels springing from 

 an involucre of bracts. The calyx is persistent, five-toothed; corolla 

 funnel- oi* salver-shaped, with five spreading or incurved lobes. Stamens 

 five ; ovary egg-shaped or globose, style thread-like, expanding at the 

 tops into the stigma. In many species the flowers are of two forms 

 (dimorphic), one having a long style, with the stamens attached low 

 down the tube ; the other with a short style and the stamens attached a 

 little below the mouth of the tube. This aiTangement has importance in 

 promoting the natural cross-fertilising of the flowers. The species are 

 distributed throughout the North Temperate, Arctic, and mountain regions, 

 besides a few in Chili, Fuegia, and Java. No less than five species are 

 indigenous to Britain. 



This genus includes some of the most valuable plants 

 ^^ '^^^' the gardener and florist have. With five native species, 

 every one worthy of cultivation, it is not too much to venture the opinion 

 that so long as flower-gardens have existed in this country there 

 have been cultivated Primroses. The Polyanthus is probably one of the 

 results of this early cultivation, for no one can say with certainty now 

 from which of our indigenous species it has been produced. Some say 

 P. vulgaris, some P. elatlor, others that it is a hybrid between 

 P. vidgari'i and P. veris. For more than three centuries we have gi-own 

 P. Aurieida, the progenitor of all the fine florists' Auriculas, brought 

 from the European Alps some time prior to 1596. The favourite Chinese 

 Primulas (P. sinensis) we have known little more than three-quarters of 

 a century ; whilst the Japanese and Himalayan species are introductions 

 of yesterday, so to speak. It is to be regretted that in our enthusiasm 

 for these new acquaintances we have to a certain extent neglected our 

 old love, the Auricula. Possibly this may be due to the rigidity of the 

 exhibition points insisted on by strict florists, which have rather tended 

 to take away from the natural grace of the plant by making its blossoms 

 too geometrically severe. A few years ago Auriculas were utterly 

 neglected, but more recently there has been a revival of interest in them. 

 Hybrids between distinct species of Primida are abundant. 



