144 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



are apparently shade plants, and their distribution tells us to expect 

 the discovery of other members of the section linking the forms already 

 known. 



There is a Himalayan representation in P. geranii folia, Hook, fil, 

 and P. vaginata, Watt, and the section appears in Japan through 

 P. jesoana, Miq. From China we know three species — P. septemloba, 

 Franch., P. heucherifolia, Franch., and P. oculata, Duthie, and they 

 are in cultivation. P. septemloba, Franch., is a graceful plant, 

 recalling somewhat Cortusa Matthioli. We owe it in our gardens 

 to Bees, Ltd., who received seed from Forrest in 1906. Easily 

 grown if surface wet is kept from it in winter. P. heucherifolia, 

 Franch., a smaller plant, is even more graceful, for its flowers have 

 a wider tube and more ample limb. It is the plant named by 

 Petitmengin P. Gagnepainii, Petitm., and introduced under that 

 name by Miss Willmott from seed collected by Wilson. Both 

 plants are hardy and require the treatment given to Cortusa Mat- 

 thioli. P. oculata, Duthie, has darker flowers than the other Chinese 

 species. It is one of Wilson's plants flowered by Messrs. Veitch 

 in 1904. I only know it from a dried specimen in Kew Herbarium 

 of the cultivated plant, and it is perhaps no longer in cultivation. 



Chinese Species of the Geranioides Section. 

 Rose-coloured or purple blue flowers. 

 P. heucherifolia, Franch. 

 P. oculata, Duthie 

 P. septemloba, Franch. (fig. 46) 



Section Pycnoloba. 

 The species P. pycnoloba, Bur. et Franch., stands by itself 

 amongst Primulas on account of its curious calycine evolution. The 

 species was introduced to Horticulture in 1906 by Messrs. Veitch, who 

 received seed of it from Wilson. It is still an uncommon plant 

 in gardens. From a group of petiolate hairy leaves with broad 

 heart-shaped lamina, so common in plants of its alliance, there arises 

 a short scape bearing a close cluster of flowers in which the calyx 

 has enlarged as a long creamy-white membranous horn with wide 

 mouth, from the edge of which extend the spike-like sepaline segments. 

 Closing, as it were, the mouth of the horn is seen the small dark red limb 

 ♦ of the corolla. There is nothing like it elsewhere in Primula. The 

 species is easily grown if protected from overhead moisture when 

 resting, and it spreads rapidly in the soil by root buds which provide 

 a ready means of propagation. 



Chinese Species of the Pycnoloba Section. 

 P. pycnoloba, Bur. et Franch. (fig. 47) 



Section Mollis. 

 The type of this section is the Himalayan P. mollis, Nutt., the 

 only Indian species of the section. China gives us three species: — 



