OBSERVATIONS ON INDIAN PRIMULAS. 



307 



Primroses, in that the sessile flowers are crowded on greatly elongated 

 spikes. 



2. Soldanelloides (fig. 70). — This is one of the rarest and at the same 

 time most charming series of Indian Primulas. They are at first sight as 

 dissimilar to the other capitate species as could well be imagined. Their 

 soft, hairy, deeply toothed leaves, large inflated calyx, and deflexed flowers 

 might have been expected to suggest a position for them near to P. mollis 

 and P. (jeranii folia. But a closer inspection reveals many peculiarities that 

 justify their association with the other capitate forms. The leaves are 

 distinctly obovate-spathulate, never rotund-petiolate. P. capitata has 

 the flowers on the circumference of the head deflexed, P. belUdifolia 

 has the leaves softly pilose, and P. sapphirina is very much like a dimi- 

 nutive P. soldanelloides. The transition from the denticulata into the 

 soldanelloides series is, therefore, perfectly natural and in no way disturbs 

 the theory of affinities based on the shape of the leaf, nature of 

 inflorescence, peculiarities of the flower, and the condition of the bracts. 



I gave the name Soldanelloides as suggestive of their deflexed and 

 nodding flowers. I might have called them Cyclameiioidcs, for the 

 inverted attitude of the flower is perhaps more familiar in the Cyclamen. 

 The name Soldanclla seemed to me, however, to have the additional 

 advantage of calling to mind their large convolvulately shaped corollas. 

 In fact, for the size of the plant, the flowers in these Primroses are 

 exceptionally large and delightfully varied in colour. P. EMU is pale 

 yellow, P. Watiii dark purple, P. uniflora pink to pale lilac, and P. 

 soldanelloides pure white. Until Mr. Duthie had the good fortune to 

 discover P. Reidii in Kumaon. and Mr. Lace to re-discover it in Chamba 

 State, all the members of the section were supposed to be confined to 

 Alpine Sikkim. None of them occur much below 13,000 feet in altitude, 

 and they are all remarkably scarce plants. There do not appear to be 

 any Primulas in Europe that could be referred to this section ; and what 

 is more surprising still, none have as yet been found in China. 



I have never had the good fortune to come across any of these charm- 

 ing plants, so I cannot tell you of their habitats. But I believe a rich 

 field for the production of delightful Primroses awaits the enterprise of 

 whoever may successfully introduce two or more of these plants into 

 cultivation and cross-breed them. The ease with which, I understand, P. 

 Reidii has been cultivated recently in Edinburgh as a pot plant, bespeaks 

 a hopeful future for its associates. It has not as yet been established out 

 of doors. By the by, P. uniflora has frequently two or three flowers, one 

 usually fully formed and the other or others apetalous. P. soldanelloides 

 seems to me perhaps the most beautiful species of the series, though I 

 am well pleased with the lovely plant with which my friend Sir George 

 King did me the honour to associate my name. 



3. Rosea (tig. 71).— This might be spoken of as essentially a N.W. 

 Himalayan group. Four species are found within the country lying between 

 Kullu, Chamba, Hazara, Kashmir, Chitral, and Western Tibet ; two are met 

 with here and there from the extreme Western to the Eastern Himalaya, 

 and one is confined to Sikkim. The most ready eye-mark for the members 

 of this section is the much-elongated few-flowered umbellate scape, the pedi- 

 cels of which are embraced by a 1-seriate involucre of ascending (parallel) 



