64 
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
It would be almost, if not quite, as easy to name a second dozen 
at all points desirable. Say, P.farinosa for delicacy and interest ; 
its pretty little white variety, too seldom seen ; P. Forsteri, 
an excellent hybrid of minima, which generally blooms twice 
a year ; the fine new and scarce hybrid P. Sendtneri, a rich- 
coloured hybrid between P. pedemontana and Auricula ; the 
white or whitish form of this last-named species, as well as 
the cross between P. Auricula and P. viscosa nivalis, which has 
yielded a charming sulphur-coloured flower ; P. integrifolia of 
Linnaeus, for its distinctness ; P. frondosa, from the Balkans, 
for its rarity ; P. salishurcjensis and P. Huteri, small hybrids 
of minima and glutinosa, which perhaps give us our nearest 
approaches to blue in Alpine Primulas ; P. longiflora, like a giant 
farinosa, and P. Balbisi, for its dark yellow blooms. There, I 
think, is a second " Baker's " dozen to be commended to those 
for whom a first is not enough. 
Nature thus far has been the chief hybridiser with this 
genus. Personally, I trust that by the many hybrids presently, 
no doubt, to be raised by man, the natural beauty and character 
of the original species will not be so obscured or overshadowed 
that our successors two hundred years hence will be in like doubt 
to that in which we find ourselves to-day as to what species were 
two hundred years ago the progenitors of our garden Auriculas. 
I have found it difficult to find much to say which I could 
hope would be acceptable or useful to very many here. 
To botanists, as such, it was obvious that I could say 
nothing netu ; and to orthodox florists, little which they will 
think true ; and the feeling of both, as regards my botany 
and my art, may perhaps resemble that of the friends of 
Artemus Ward for his picture of the moon in his showman's 
diorama. "My art friends," said Mr. Ward, witli admiring 
self-complacency, as the intentionally wretched daub of a disc 
struggled up the picture, " say they novcr in their lives saw any- 
thing like that moon before, and," ho added drily, " they }wi)e 
they never loill again ! " 
r»ut if tlie feelings of botanists and florists are such, my 
notes may yet perhaps bo found useful to those — for whom, 
indeed, alone they are intended— comi)ig fresh to the subject of 
Alpine Primulas and their culture. And I have more confidently 
the hope that I have been able at least to raise questions— albeit, 
perhaps, old ones — worthy the attention of this Conference. 
