146 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Diels, but accept the determination of identity by Petitmengin, whose 

 predilections were rather in an opposite direction. 



Chinese Species of the Malvacea Section. 

 Lilac flowers. Yellow flowers. 



P. blattariformis, Franch. P. bathangensis, Petitm. 



P. malvacea, Franch. (fig. 49) P. pintchouanensis , Petitm. 

 P. neurocalyx, Franch. P. racemosa, Bonati 



P. Paxiana, Gilg — a species from Shantung, the easternmost 

 province of China — is included by Pax in his section Sinensis. I have 

 not seen it, and am unable to assign it a place in the sections I have 

 named. It has a distinct physiognomy, and its home suggests that 

 it may represent a group other members of which are yet to be 

 discovered. 



I have next to speak of a series of forms which have real kinship, 

 but which fall naturally into three groups — Chartacea, Davidi, 

 Sonchifolia. These take in species which Pax placed in different 

 sections, some in Sinensis, some in Bullatae, and some in his 

 Cankrienia. 



Section Chartacea. 



Two Chinese species — P. chartacea, Franch., and P. Veitchiana, 



Petitm. — not yet in cultivation, have a physiognomy that brings them 

 together in a group between those already referred to of Pax's section 

 Sinensis and the section Davidi, of which I shall speak next. Their 

 clear-cut, glabrous, petiolate leaves, with round lamina, are a con- 

 spicuous feature, recalling somewhat the Sinensis series, whilst their 

 flower and fruit characters are more of section Davidi. I have not 

 seen enough of them to warrant a fixed conclusion regarding their 

 affinity. They are a natural combination. 



Chinese Species of the Chartacea Section. 

 P. chartacea, Franch. 

 P. Veitchiana, Petitm. 



Section Davidi. 



To this section belong some of the most beautiful of Chinese 

 Primulas. Large flowers, borne on trusses of stiff pedicels spreading 

 on the top of a well-proportioned scape that rises from a rosette of oval- 

 oblong sessile leaves with a more or less rugose surface, characterize 

 the section ; a cluster of scale-leaves of a rich brown colour invests 

 the rosette. In fruit the scape elongates and the pedicels thicken 

 conspicuously under the calyx. P. Davidi, Franch., is the type : 

 a plant with rich purple flowers, collected by the Abbe David in 

 Muping. P. ovalifolia, Franch., was introduced by Messrs. Veitch, 

 and flowered with them about 1906. The seed was collected by 



