THE PRIMROSE GARDEN S17 



varieties of the strong buncli-liowered or Polyanthus 

 kind, but they vary in detail so much, in form, colour, 

 habit, arrangement, and size of eye and shape of edge, 

 that one year thinking it might be useful to classify 

 them I tried to do so, but gave it up after writing out 

 the characters of sixty classes ! Their possible varia- 

 tion seems endless. Every year among the seedlings 

 there appear a number of charming flowers with some 

 new development of size, or colour of flower, or beauty 

 of foliage, and yet all within the narrow bounds of — 

 white and yellow Primroses. 



Their time of flowering is much later than that of 

 the true or single-stalked Primrose. They come into 

 bloom early in April, though a certain number of 

 poorly-developed flowers generally come much earlier, 

 and they are at their best in the last two weeks of 

 April and the first days of May. When the bloom 

 wanes, and is nearly overtopped by the leaves, the 

 time has come that I find best for dividing and re- 

 planting. The plants then seem willing to divide, 

 some almost falling apart in one's hands, and the new 

 roots may be seen just begirming to form at the base 

 of the crown. The plants are at the same time 

 relieved of the crowded mass of flower-stem, and, 

 therefore, of the exhausting effort of forming seed, a 

 severe drain on their strength. A certain number wiU 

 not have made more than one strong crown, and a few 

 single-crown plants have not flowered ; these, of course, 

 do not divide. During the flowering time I keep a 



