PRIMULA CONFERENCE. 



I29 



61 species admitted by Duby 17 are Indian, but there is only one 

 Chinese — P. sinensis, Lindl. 



The next comprehensive treatment of Primula was that by Pax 

 in 1S88. In his preliminary review of the genus published in that 

 year 144 are admitted, and of them Indian species number 46, 

 Chinese 37. 



It was not until 1905 that Pax published his complete Monograph 

 in Engler's " Pflanzenreich," and in the interval the known species 

 had increased to 208, of which 54 are Indian and 88 Chinese. 



Not a decade has elapsed since the date of Pax's Monograph,* and 

 during it the accessions to our knowledge of species have been so 

 numerous that we have to reckon with nearly 300 which are dis- 

 tributed somewhat after this fashion : — some 70 are Himalayan ; 

 over 140 are Chinese ; about 40 occur in Asia outside the Himalayas 

 and China ; 14 are Japanese ; 19 are American. 



In the present state of knowledge the species of Primula known 

 from China equal in number, or even outnumber, all other known 

 species. 



These figures are to be taken as indicating general relationship 

 only. They are not precise data. So much depends upon the esti- 

 mate of what is species and what is variety that no two botanists 

 would, I fancy, bring out the same figures. Nor are they to be inter- 

 preted as either an approach to the total number of species that are 

 to come to our ken or as suggesting a final numerical ratio between 

 the species in the several areas. True it is that the Primula treasury 

 of Europe is pretty well exhausted of its species. Also the Japanese 

 have so thoroughly worked out their flora that few more species are 

 likely to be forthcoming from Japan. What we know, too, of the 

 development of the genus in America does not promise any great 

 addition to the number of species from that continent. But the 

 mountain ranges of Asia from the Caucasus eastwards, and particu- 

 larly in the southern boundary ending in China of the great Asiatic 

 Divide, have assuredly hordes of Primulas awaiting discovery, and we 

 may say with confidence that the coming decade will see the number of 

 known species increased by one half, if not doubled. When the time 

 comes for critical study leading to the determination of microforms, 

 the numerical increment of recognized forms must reach a figure 

 which it would be rash to forecast. 



The accessions in recent years to our knowledge of the Primulas of 

 China have been primarily the result of the work of the missionaries 

 of the French Catholic Mission. David in Muping, Delavay at 

 Talifu, Ducloux and Maire at Yunnanfu, Faber at Mt. Omi, 

 Faurie and Soulie at Tatsienlu and Batang, Farges at Chengkow, 

 Giraldi in North Shensi, Monbeig at Tseku, by their strenuous 

 collecting through the years since the sixties of last century, have 

 enriched European Herbaria, principally the Herbarium of the Jardin 

 des Plantes in Paris, with material which has given botanists a new 



See p. 219. 



vol. xxxix. K 



