110 JOURNAL OF THE EOYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



If, as it sometimes happens, a race of Primulas lias been 

 obtained in which all the strength of the plant seems to have 

 been concentrated in the foliage, and the flowers show unmis- 

 takable signs of reverting to the original forms, the hybridist 

 would seek to correct this tendency by introducing blood from 

 another race, conspicuous for the perfect form of the flowers. 



Then again, in the fern-leaved section, for many years after 

 its introduction, the leaf-stalks were of such a length that the 

 plant could not generally be used for table decoration, and it has 

 been the aim in our own case, and doubtless with others, to alter 

 this by cross-fertilisation and selection, so as to secure a race of 

 fern-leaved Primulas as compact in form as any of the varieties 

 with palmate leaves. 



Perhaps the most constant aim of the hybridist is to produce 

 some novelty or improvement in colour (which may apply either 

 to the flower or the foliage), and in order to secure this very 

 many years of patient labour are needed. 



It may be interesting to note, as showing the increased 

 attention given of late years to cross -fertilisation as compared 

 with selection only, that whereas in the year 1875 we ourselves 

 made two crosses, the number has recently risen to as many as 

 sixty-four separate crosses in one season, all made with a 

 definite object in view ; the object being to produce some 

 distinct advance in colour, form, habit of growth, or size of 

 flower, &c. 



The more divergent the types chosen for crossing, the more 

 numerous, of course, will be the variations in the seedlings. This 

 is shown by the following figures. Whereas in 1875 (the year 

 in which only two crosses were made) we grew 18 varieties, 

 that number had by the year 1888 been increased to 255 ; 

 although out of this number only 29 were considered of suffi- 

 cient merit to find a place in our catalogue, with the exception, 

 of course, of a certain number of seedlings giving promise for the 

 future. 



As an illustration of the amount of detailed work often 

 required in raising a distinct race of Primulas, I may give the 

 history of our Heading moss-curled types. In 1882 we had a 

 batch of double white Primulas, in which there was one plant 

 in such an unhealthy condition that it never received a shift 

 from a 72-pot ; we called it a cripple, because of the deformed 



