130 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



outlook on the Primula world. But the work of these residents, if 

 I may so call them, has been singularly without direct effect upon 

 Horticulture. I mean that the Herbarium, not the Garden, has 

 benefited chiefly. Indeed, so far as I know, P. Forbesii, Franch., 

 and P. Poissonii, Franch., are the only species of Primula of our 

 gardens that have come to us through them directly. 



Of our countrymen, Pratt, working in the north about Tatsienlu, 

 and especially Henry, in the south at Ichang and Mengtsz, have likewise 

 furnished our Herbaria with many new species of Primula — none to 

 our gardens. It is to the enterprise of Messrs. Veitch of Chelsea 

 that Horticulture is indebted — as it has been in so many fields — for 

 the first sight of the wonders of the new Primula world of China opened 

 up by collections for the Herbarium, and the name of E. H. Wilson, 

 their collector, will always be honoured by Horticulturists. Wilson's 

 exploration from Ichang on the south to beyond Tatsienlu on the north 

 brought to our knowledge plants from areas outside the range of 

 workers from the mission centres ; and now his good work is being 

 continued by Purdom under the same firm, the result of which we see in 

 the lovely P. PurdomiwYiich Messrs. Veitch have just shown to us. 



Following the example of Messrs. Veitch, Mr. Bulley (now 

 Bees, Ltd.) sent out George Forrest to Yunnan, and he, journeying 

 in the track of the missionaries from Tali up the Mekong-Salween and 

 Mekong- Yangtze Divides, tapped for horticultural purposes the best 

 known Primula area. Forrest is again in Yunnan as collector for 

 J. C. Williams, Esq., of Caerhays Castle. His most recent find in the 

 way of Primulas — P. helodoxa, Balf. fil., a splendid orange-yellow 

 Candelabra — will, I hope, be in our gardens in course of this year. To 

 Yunnan also Kingdon Ward has just returned to renew the exploration 

 for Bees, Ltd. which two years ago he carried out on the Mekong- 

 Salween Divide. 



From these explorers— Wilson and Purdom for Messrs. Veitch, 

 Forrest and Kingdon Ward for Bees, Ltd., and Forrest for Mr. 

 Williams — the Chinese Primulas recently introduced have come, and 

 from those of them who are now again exploring we hope for further 

 accessions. As yet we have only reaped sporadically in the plenteous 

 field of China's Primulas. 



Everyone interested in Primulas is grateful to Professor Pax for 

 his pioneer work in modern times upon the genus. His book is in- 

 dispensable. His treatment of the Auricula section is masterly, and 

 I say the like of his dealing with the Vernales. In these sections, 

 which include the Primulas of Europe and the European Alps, the types 

 have been so long known and so much studied both in herbaria and in 

 their habitats, and so little remains to be added outside the domains 

 of microspecies and hybrids, that material for a fairly correct judgment 

 is available. It is otherwise with the Eastern Asiatic species, and I 

 gather from his Monograph that Professor Pax had not the advantage 

 of studying critically the plants in the Paris Herbarium. As a con- 

 sequence identifications are sometimes faulty and his grouping of the 



