306 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of 12 15,000 feet and in situations very similar to those chosen by P. 

 denticulata, only usually a couple of thousand feet higher. Professor 

 Balfour informs me that it flowers and seeds well in the Edinburgh 

 Botanic Gardens. Duthie collected (in W.Nepal, at an altitude of 11-12,000 

 feet) what I take to be either a new species or an Alpine state of P. 

 capitata. This seems a delightful little plant, at present too imperfectly 

 known to allow of more than the affirmation that it is certainly not P. 

 jyitsilla, to which species it has been referred. 



P. erosa is also an Eastern form that is even less deserving of an 

 independent position than capitata. It has large thin, sharply toothed, 

 and often puberulous leaves, and many small flowers on short pedicels. 

 It occurs at lower elevations usually than P. denticulate, and so far has 

 been recorded as met with in Kumaon and Bhutan only at altitudes of 

 from 4,500 to 9,000 feet. It is of no interest from the standpoint of 

 cultivation, since it is not a very pretty species. 



P. bellidifolia is the Eastern representative of P. farinosa and has 

 leaves almost tomentose. P. glabra and P. pusilla are very much like 

 each other, except that the latter is hairy and the mouth of the corolla 

 completely obstructed by a woolly mass. It has been repeatedly 

 collected. I found it in August 1881 in Sikkim, on the slopes above 

 Jongri, 14-15,000 feet. It has since then been secured by Elwes and 

 others, while Hobson has extended its area to Yatung in Eastern Tibet. 

 Professor Balfour writes me that they have this year raised P. glabra from 

 seed obtained from Calcutta. 



P. sappliirina is perhaps the most beautiful of the capitate Primulas 

 of India. The whole plant does not exceed two inches in height, but the 

 little heads of flowers have been most fittingly accepted as justifying the 

 name sappliirina. It was originally collected by Sir J. D. Hooker in 

 Sikkim and has since been found by one or two other collectors, and it 

 flowered in Kew Gardens in May 1887. Recently it has been found by 

 Hobson in Yatung in Tibet. P. muscoidesia a densely tufted species and 

 apparently the smallest of all Primulas. It is found in Sikkim at 

 altitudes of 15,000 feet. In some respects it is much like P. mimitissima, 

 and is in fact the Eastern representative of that species, but it is much 

 smaller and has the petals very much more deeply bifid. 



Before leaving the ihnticulata series I may repeat that they are 

 perhaps the least liable to vary of all the Indian species. Alpine 

 examples are simply dwarfed states and never assume the condition of 

 having solitary, exceptionally large flowers. In fact it would seem as if 

 the tendency were to vary in lower rather than higher altitudes, and by 

 increasing the number and reducing the size of the flowers. 



In conclusion I may mention that the well-known European P. 

 auriculata doubtless belongs to this series, though the flowers of the 

 capitulum (like those of P. erosa) are often shortly stalked. Its long- 

 leaved variety much resembles capitata. P. algida is exceedingly 

 like the Indian form of P. farinosa, and P. capitellata, Boiss., is not very 

 unlike /'. bellidifolia. So also P. ccmua, Franch. (from Yunnan), might 

 be characterised as a small condition of P. capitata, possessing the pilose 

 leaves of P. bellidifolia and the pendant flowers of P. capitata. Lastly, 

 P. Viali, Delavay, also from Yunnan, is perhaps the most aberrant of all 



