32 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



NOTES ON PRIMULA DEORUM, SHORTIA UNIFLORA, AND 

 RHODOTHAMNUS CHAM/ECISTUS. 



By W. T. Hindmabsh, F.L.S., Alnbank, Alnwick. 



Primula deorum (Vel.). 



This fine and distinct Primula is undoubtedly a rare plant, and probably 

 has not been flowered in this country before the present spring (1904). 

 The plate, fig. 1, which is about two- thirds of the natural size, clearly 

 shows the form and habit of the plant as it bloomed in my rock garden in 

 May last, and which I had procured from Herr F. Sundermann in 1002, 

 but it is a matter of regret that the colour is absent, as it is a striking 

 feature, the blooms being rich purple-violet, and the leaves deep bluish- 

 green. I may add that there were twenty flowers (though Velenovsky's 

 description in "Flora Bulgarica," 1891, p. 479, gives the usual number 

 as only from five to ten), and that the dark colour of the flower-stem 

 and the viscid gum upon it and the bracts and calyx are very distinctive 

 characteristics. 



P. deorum is growing with me on a north exposure at the foot of a 

 broad stone, in sandy loam, and the only protection it has had is a pane 

 of glass tilted over it (open of course at the ends) during some very heavy 

 winter rains, and even this was probably unnecessary, as the plant appears 

 to be perfectly hardy, and so the eminent authority Herr Max Leichtlin, 

 of Baden-Baden, found it, but he told me it was very difficult to keep 

 in good health. 



This Primula, discovered by Velenovsky in 1889, is a native of Mount 

 Rilo in Bulgaria, where it grows at an elevation of 8,000 feet in moist 

 grassy pastures near the sources of brooks beneath the snowfields. My 

 friend the Rev. David Paul, LL.D., of Edinburgh, in his able address to 

 the Botanical Society of Edinburgh in 1901 on the European Primula, 

 furnishes some interesting notes (to which I am much indebted) on 

 P. deorum, and quotes Widiner's criticism of the want of qualification of 

 the plant for its most distinguished name, but adds that the critic had 

 not seen the living plant. From the very handsome appearance of my 

 specimen this year and its robust growth — it now has two strong crowns 

 — I am disposed to think that with a little time it will justify its title of 

 •'The Primula of the Gods." 



Shortia uniflora (Maxim.). 



The accompanying plate (fig. 2) is from a photograph taken by 

 Mr. J. C. Ruddock of Alnwick in my rock garden of Shortia uniflora, the 

 Japanese form of Sliortia, on April 2, 1902, and is about one third of 

 the natural size. The plant had then 24 blush-coloured blcoms of a wax- 

 like appearance, and foliage of somewhat leathery texture, dull green, with 

 very prominent lighter-coloured veins. 



