102 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



writer states that " the first evidence of its existence was in 1819. 

 John Eeeves, Esq., then a resident in China, sent home drawings 

 of it, which excited much attention. At the request of the Koyal 

 Horticultural Society he sent home seeds and a plant, both of 

 which failed. Soon after this Captain Kawes succeeded in bring- 

 ing home a live plant, which he presented to a relative of his, 

 Mr. Thomas Palmer, of Bromley, Kent, who managed to flower 

 it. According to Lindley this was in 1821." 



Turning again to Dr. Masters' article of January 26, 1889, 

 we read : " The Chinese Primrose was introduced to this country 

 about 1820 from Chinese gardens. The original introduction 

 was from two sources, and different in character, one set having 

 relatively small flowers and smooth-edged petals, while the other 

 set had indications of the crenated edge and wavy margin that 

 characterises so many of the best varieties of the present day." 



These quotations which I have given are, as you will have 

 noticed, from recently published articles, but an extract from 

 Curtis's Botanical Magazine, vol. lii. t. 2564, bearing the 

 date 1825, will be of still further interest, more particularly as 

 it was accompanied by a very beautiful water-colour drawing 

 made in 1825, and representing the plant as it was then known, 

 some .five years after its introduction. 



In the description accompanying the plate, which depicts a 

 red-flowered plant (no mention being made of variation in colour 

 of the flowers), the corolla is said to be " saucer-shaped, tube half 

 an inch long, limb plain, five-cleft ; laciniae-obcordate, generally 

 with quite entire margins, but sometimes on the same plant, from 

 luxuriance, variously incised, oblique with regard to the tube. 



" The first plant that flowered in this country had so generally 

 more than five teeth to the calyx, and a corolla so variously 

 jagged, as to lead to a doubt whether it really belonged to the 

 genus Primula, and Dr. Hooker has considered the species as- 

 consisting of two distinct varieties, but to us it appears most 

 probably that whenever the number of teeth of the calyx exceed 

 five, and the margin of the corolla is not entire, this deviation is 

 the effect of cultivation, and arises from luxuriance only. 



" This beautiful acquisition to our greenhouses was received 

 from China, and first cultivated with success in this country by 

 Thomas C. Palmer, Esq., of Bromley, Kent, who kindly com- 

 municated recent specimens in its different stages of growth. 



