OBSERVATIONS ON INDIAN PRIMULAS, 



OBSEBVATIONS ON INDIAN PBIMULAS. 

 By Sin Gbobob Watt, C»I*E,, lf,B,, C*M*, LLJ). 

 [Bead btfoci fcb* Horticultural Club, October 4.] 



Within the pMt few years r<-m;ukabl<; pro;.' »< •:•; has been mad<-, both by 



botanists and cultivators, in the discovery And production of new forms oi 

 Primula, There are now known to exist close on two hundred •pedes, 

 besides many cultivated hybrids and iports of great beauty* Roughly 

 speaking, they may b<; laid to be distributed within three great central 



namely, Europe, India, and China. Kach of these chid centres possesses 



oo an average about fifty species, and the balance of the total mentioned 

 may be taken as made up by America, Central Asia, Africa, and Japan. 

 They inhabit the temperate and arctic regions of the northern hemisphere, 

 practically only one species P. magella/n/lect being found in the southern 

 hemisphere. This circumstance is perhaps the roost remarkable feature 

 manifested by t > j * - genus, but there are others equally impressive* P* 

 matjaUn/h idcd , for example, has two great centres (New Mexico and 

 Patagonia), separated by five thousand miles In which no trace of that 

 plant can be discovered* But P,fa/rmo8ah»M the widest distribution of 

 ;iJ J the species, since it practically occurs In every important Primula ares 

 throughout the northern hemisphere, and yet in its diversified and pride 

 distribution it manifests but the rery slightest modification either in form 

 or in size* Of the bidian species all without exception are confined to the 



Himalaya and adjacent mountains that form the North Ka-.tern, Northern, 

 and North* Western frontier of India, from Burma and Assam to Ka ihmir 



and Baluchistan. None occur <m the mountains of Centra] and Southern 

 India, though i rj point, of climate, soil, and associated plants they might 

 fairly well have been looked for in these regions* So again a few species 



are practically met with all along the mountainous frontier of India, 



while otberi are exceedingly local. A few forms are rery variable ; others 

 seem, like I'. fa/rvnoM^ remarkably constant* But Sikkim may without 

 hesitation be pronounced the headquarters of the Indian Primroses, and 



many species are found in that country that would appear to occur 



nowhere else* The forms that spread eastward from Sikkim to Assam, 

 Burma, and Ifanipur are seen to belong to an assemblage that attains its 

 great es t development in Southern China, more especially in the mountains 



of the province of Yunnan. On the other hand, the types that -:pread 

 westward from Sikkim to Nepal, Kumaon, ^arhwal, Cbamba. and 



Kashmir, are forms that reappear in Afghanistan, Persia, Central Asia, 



Turkestan, and Europe* 



It may he here remarked that the Himalayas trend northward as they 

 pass from east to west. Hence 



1. Kashmir lies between W and &d* north latitude. 



2. Kumaon and Bashahr He between 20* and $1* north latitude* 



ft. Nepal between 28'' and BO* north latitude* 



i. Sikkim and Bhutan between 27'' and 28'' north latitude* 



