CHINESE PRIMULAS. 



113 



is seldom, if ever, found safe to expose them out of doors, 

 whereas in the South of France at Christmas time I have seen 

 in the Public Gardens at Nice Chinese Primulas used as bedding 

 plants without the slightest protection, just as we might use 

 Lobelias or shrubby Calceolarias in summer. 



In conclusion, I would only say that while endeavouring to 

 make my remarks interesting, I am more than conscious of the 

 fact that very much has been omitted which ought to have been 

 included in any paper on the Chinese Primula read before the 

 Fellows of the Eoyal Horticultural Society. 



Discussion. 



Dr. Masters said that a great contrast was observable be- 

 tween the Chinese Primula and the Chrysanthemum in the kind 

 and degree of variation presented by them respectively. There 

 was much less variation in the Primula than in the Chrysanthe- 

 mum, and he thought this might be attributed to the fact that 

 the Chinese Primula was pure-bred, the offspring of one species 

 only, and that it had been relatively but a short time in cultiva- 

 tion, at least in this country. The Chrysanthemum, on the 

 other hand, was probably the descendant of two or more species, 

 the varieties of which had been selected and intercrossed for 

 ages, either purposely or by insect agency, by the Chinese and 

 Japanese. 



The Chinese Primrose was first introduced to the notice of the 

 Society by Mr. Beeves in 1819, and, in the following year, a living 

 plant was brought over by Captain Rawes. Other importations 

 followed, and the plant soon became popular. But all these were 

 cultivated forms, or derived from the gardens of Chinese ports 

 and towns. It was not till a few years ago that anything definite 

 was known as to the wild plant. At the Primula Conference 

 held in 1886, however, a communication was read from M. 

 Franchet (Report of Primula Conference, Journal of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society, vol. vii. (1886), p. 189), in which the 

 discovery by the Abbe Delavay of the wild plant on calcareous 

 rocks in the gorges of Y-Chang was announced. Since that 

 time it has been ascertained that the plant was originally dis- 

 covered in the same locality at an even earlier period, viz., in 

 1879, by M. Watters. About the same time that the Abbe 



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