Part II. PRIMULA. 289 



insert each portion firmly down to the leaves. This will be all 

 the more beneficial in dry districts, where the little roots that 

 issue from the stems would be more likely to perish. It is a 

 charming ornament for rockwork, where it thrives freely, and a 

 first-class subject for the front margin of the select mixed border. 

 In the open ground a few bits of broken rock, placed around 

 each plant, or amongst the plants if they are planted in groups 

 or tufts, will do good by preventing evaporation, and also acting 

 as a protection to the plant, which rarely exceeds a few inches 

 in height. It may also be grown easily in pots ; and, where 

 plentiful, it is. much better to put one plant in the centre, and 

 half a dozen round the side, of a six-inch pot than depend on 

 one tuft in the centre. A native' of the Alps of Tauria and 

 Dauphiny, and various ranges in the South of Europe, but not 

 of the Pyrenees. Readily increased by division. 



PRIMULA MINIMA. — Fairy Primrose. 



For its size a singularly ornamental kind, with very small 

 leaves, prostrate, and rather deeply notched at the ends ; but the 

 flowers make up for the very diminutive leaves, being not unfre- 

 quently nearly an inch across, and quite covering the minute 

 rosette from which they spring. It is a native of the Alps of 

 Austria, and flowers in early summer, the stem rarely bearing 

 more than one, but occasionally two flowers, rose-coloured, or 

 sometimes white. Bare spots in firm open parts of the rockwork 

 are the best places for it, the soil to be very sandy peat and 

 loam ; it is peculiarly suited for association with the very 

 dwarfest and choicest alpine plants. It may be propagated by 

 division or by seed, and comes from the mountains of Southern 

 Europe. 



P. Floerkiana is very like the Fairy Primrose, probably only 

 a variety of it, and in the flowers only differing by bearing 

 two, three, or more, instead of a single bloom. There is also 

 a difference in the leaves, which in P. minima are nearly square 

 at the ends, but in P. Floerkiana are roundish there, and notched 

 for a short distance down the sides. It is a native of Austria, 

 and will be found to enjoy the same conditions and positions on 

 rockwork as the preceding. Of both it is desirable to establish 

 wide-spreading patches on firm bare spots, scattering half an inch 

 of silver-sand between the plants to, keep the ground cool. 



U 



