138 GARDENS OF ENGLAND 



This race is the result of years of patient labour in 

 bringing to perfection a type of plant which has now 

 the love of all who care for the flowers of the early 

 year. The bunch primroses are of great garden 

 value ; they bloom later than the true primroses, 

 and revel in the half-shade of the woodland. Such 

 a group as that raised by Miss Jekyll has flowers 

 in profusion and kept exclusively to whites and 

 yellows. The true type develops flowers in 

 clusters or bunches, and the individual bloom is 

 large, without any suggestion of coarseness, and 

 beautiful in colouring. The individual blooms of 

 the Munstead strain are one and a half inches 

 across, but a number have reached two inches. 

 Size, however, in this group has not been so much 

 considered as an all-round garden plant — a beautiful 

 thing in the garden. 



The primrose fills one's heart with the thoughts 

 of spring ; it is the flower that greets the opening 

 buds on tree and shrub. Its companions are the 

 cowslip, the oxslip, and the auricula, and I hope 

 it will interest readers of these gardening thoughts 

 to know something of the history of the flowers 

 one loves so well. Mr. P. R. Brotherston, who 

 has given his leisure hours to the study of these 

 and other flowers, wrote to me some time ago 



