114 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



In Switzerland however, and especially in the Engadine, its most 

 southerly corner, P. Auricula finds a happy mating-ground ; for Switzer- 

 land, so poor in Primulas, yet provides two at least that are to the taste 

 of P. Auricula. Almost universal, though usually non -calcareous in 

 its tastes, is P. hirsuta, All. (1785) (the false P. viscosa of gardens and 

 catalogues). And hence springs an endless and inextricable series of 

 hybrids — with which I am not here to cope, as I have never yet ranged 

 the districts occupied by Auricula and hirsuta — that is, the whole 

 main chain, at least as far as the Voraarlberg. This cross is indefinitely 

 fertile, too, breeds backwards and forwards again, in and out to the 

 nth generation, steadily increasing, also, in magnificence, till from 

 this are ultimately developed all the Auriculas of the florist and the 

 border, since Clusius first in 1573 saw them in the gardens of his 

 medical friend Dr. John Aicholtz of Vienna, and sought them in 

 vain over the highest ranges of Austria and Styria, but understood them 

 to be known in the Oenipontine Alps. This cross, and its further 

 results, are universal in Switzerland ; and, setting aside the florist, 

 the rock gardener has hard enough work with disentangling all the 

 confused names of the countless 1 Alpine Primulas ' that oscillate 

 between hirsuta and Auricula. The proper, sole name for the whole 

 enormous range of them, no matter how they vary, is P. X pubescens. 

 But here follows a list of garden and catalogue titles that should now 

 be discarded (for it would be far better, in most special cases, to give 

 a fancy name such as that of ' Mrs. J. H. Wilson ' or ' The General/ 

 which have been put to certain forms of pubescens — though under the 

 false specifics either of P. ciliata or P. viscosa), P. Arctotis, P. Kerneri, 

 P. Goblii, P. rhaeiica, P. alpina, P. helvetica, P. ciliata, P. nivalis, 

 and P. alba. More than this, there are in cultivation certain obscure and 

 old forms clearly originating between Auricula and viscosa, Auri- 

 cula and villosa. (One special albino I possess, found in some cottage 

 border, which is clearly Auricula x white viscosa, a handsome thrifty 

 plant, with precisely the tall stem, nodding umbel, and narrow flower 

 of P. viscosa.) And both these crosses, Auricula x viscosa and 

 Auricula x villosa, are submerged by Pax, following Widmer, under 

 the name pubescens, applying only, in honesty, to Auricula x hirsuta. 

 I can but regret the weakness which has left two such important 

 crosses without any official separate recognition. Even if the task 

 of unravelling the primary, secondary, and tertiary generations from 

 Auricula be too vast to allow of any clear definitions of parentage, 

 yet there should at least be names, even if they be only nomina nuda, 

 to express the abstract idea of two- crosses so specific as Auricula x 

 viscosa and Auricula x villosa. It may fairly be claimed, indeed, that 

 in all branches of gardening few plants have so ancient a pedigree 

 and so august a horticultural history as the vast new race aboriginally 

 sprung from P. Auricula, dividing from its sources into a thousand 

 forms and an infinite variety of colours each more brilliant than the 

 last. But P. Auricula, in all its crossings — keeps, like the late 

 Imperial House of China, its own Imperial yellow for itself. The 



