380 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



been made with P. rosea ; if its bright colour could be given to 

 a larger and more vigorous flower it would be a gain to horticul- 

 ture. P. sikkimensis has roots very like those of P. rosea, but 

 the habit above ground is very different. I am obliged to keep 

 it entirely in the shade, where it grows in moist peat nearly a 

 yard high, with large heads of flowers. It soon exhausts the soil 

 beneath it, but may be divided by separating the compact crowns 

 in early spring, and transplanting them to new soil. It is easier, 

 however, to raise it from seed, which it ripens in abundance. It 

 shows no tendency to develop improvement in gardens. It may 

 be mentioned that this Primrose has been made in some nurseries 

 to do duty for P. reticulata, a plant more slender and smaller 

 in all its dimensions, and worthless for garden decoration. 



In all these Primroses the seed, if sown as soon as ripe — say 

 about the end of July — generally comes up in a few days, and 

 by the end of autumn sufficient growth has been made for a 

 winter bud to be formed, the developed leaves always dying ; 

 but P. capitata, which I shall now describe, never under any 

 conditions of cultivation forms a winter bud, and I do not know 

 how it survives winter in its own home. Its merits are too great 

 for it to be disregarded as a garden plant, but it is the most 

 capricious and full of irregularities of all the Primroses I grow. 

 Sir J. Hooker, in his " Flora of British India," says that he 

 retains this species as distinct from P. denticulata with great hesi- 

 tation — no doubt regarding their botanical characters ; but their 

 habit in cultivation differs widely, the one being the most per- 

 verse, the other the easiest to manage of all the genus. The seed 

 I always sow as soon as ripe, but as it remains evergreen it 

 must be carefully sheltered all winter. The first flowering is late 

 in summer, when the seedlings are a little more than a year old. 

 They must be kept under glass again during their second winter, 

 and may be planted out in May when the soil is wet. In a 

 hot dry summer a large proportion wither and die, but when 

 July is wet the plants thrive and flower on until the flowers 

 are killed by hard frost. November often finds five or six 

 fine heads on each, but it is difficult, even by covering them, 

 to keep them through a third winter. They continue open in 

 the crown and short in the neck, and before the end of 

 winter the crown comes off like an acorn out of its cup, and 

 the rootstock never breaks again. With all its faults P. capitata 

 is a very ornamental and striking plant in late summer and autumn. 



