THE CULTURE AND CLASSIFICATION OF PRIMULAS. 45 
and their comparative ease of culture, the small extent to which 
choice collections are found is remarkable. The more so for 
the reason that their more civilised sisters, the florists' Auriculas, 
although all too seldom seen at their best, even in good gardens, 
are yet, by comparison, seen frequently ; that wherever these 
can be grown, so can the wild species, with, on the whole, 
greater ease ; and that while all choice florists' Auriculas need 
glass protection to do them any justice, with the majority of 
the Primula species this is not the case. 
I attribute this fact, myself, first to comparative ignorance of 
their beauty. The group has never "boomed," so to speak, 
sufficiently to give it that publicity which should secure for it 
a permanent place among plant-lovers. Then, again, while 
the larger number of species are of easy culture, some are not 
so. A very few are not so even with winter shelter, and so 
the whole class has been discredited by the failure of a few. 
Finally, the nomenclature of the genus has been in so chaotic 
a state that it has repelled many from the subject. A word or 
two first on this question of nomenclature. 
The Report of the last Primula Conference, published by the 
R.H.S., and the perusal of which I may recommend to all, 
contains an elaborate synonymic list of the known species and 
forms of the genus put together by Mr. Dewar, lately of Kew 
Gardens. 
The number of names in this list with a botanist's name 
attached to each is over 600, including hybrids and natural 
varieties named by botanists, but not including garden varieties 
named by nurserymen. 
Of this number no less than 365 or thereabouts (nearer 
two -thirds than one-half) are marked as mere synonyms or 
second names, thus reducing to about 300 the number of 
species, hybrids, and well-marked varieties known to the com- 
piler, and authorised by one botanist or another. The typical 
species alone are, of course, far fewer, for the hybrids and 
varieties are many ; and these are sometimes, by-the-bye, the 
more beautiful plants. 
After all allowance made, I think all competent botanists 
allow that the confusion is extreme. They are fellow- sufferers 
with us gardeners in this matter, and such only. For let me 
say, in passing, that, while botanical nomenclature is in its 
