128 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



Inter-subsectional crosses, Erythrodosum x Erythrodosum. 



P. hirsuta x P. oenensis = P. X Seriana, Widmer. 



Arthritica x Arthritica. 

 P. glaucescens var. longobarda X P. spectabilis = P. X Carueli, Porta. 



Discussion. 



In answer to the Chairman, the Lecturer said : I think, with 

 regard to Primula viscosa, lati folia is a later name. The proper 

 specific name of the species is viscosa, and it is in three main marked 

 varieties. The first is the form which occurs in the Pyrenees ; the 

 second is Primula cynoglossifolia, which has a habit of growing in 

 more open spaces, and the third is the P. latifolia found usually 

 among rocks, and very often on the shady and northerly side of 

 the rocks. It has something of the habit of the marginata. 



The President : They seem to have abandoned the name — I am 

 speaking of two or three years ago — of latifolia in favour of Berninae. 



The Lecturer : The name Berninae only applies to the hybrid 

 with P. hirsuta. 



Afternoon Session. 



After the luncheon interval the Chairman called upon Professor 

 J. Bayley Balfour, F.R.S., V.M.H., for his paper on ' Chinese 

 Primulas.' [Note. — Prof. Balfour illustrated his remarks by a splendid 

 series of photographs, many of which are, with his kind permission, 

 reproduced here.] The following is a synopsis of his lecture : — 



"CHINESE SPECIES OF PRIMULA." 



Prof. Bayley Balfour, — To write of the Primulas of China is my 

 task. In relation to its scope the following statistics are of interest : — 



At the time of Linnaeus the number of species known which he 

 had to include in his Species Plantarum, published in 1753, was 6. 

 Of the 6 one only is extra-European — Primula cortusoides, Linn., 

 a West Siberian plant. 



Lehmann, in his Monograph of Primula, dated 1817, describes 

 44 species. Of these nearly one-half are not recognized nowadays 

 as species, some of them being hybrids and others merely growth- 

 forms or variations. Eight of his species are extra-European, and of 

 these none is Indian and none is Chinese. 



When Duby wrote the Monograph of Primulaceae in De Candolle's 

 Prodromus, published in 1844, the work of Wallich and Royle 

 had made known something of the flora of the Himalayas, and of the 



