PRIMULA CONFERENCE. 



147 



Wilson. Sir Harry Veitch informs me it is no longer in cultivation. 

 I think it possible that two distinct plants are included in the P. 

 ovaHfolia, Franch. In this section I place at present P. coerulea, 

 G. Forrest, which has the vegetative characters of the species already 

 mentioned, but not those of the flower. There are two young plants 

 of this at Edinburgh raised from seed taken from specimens col- 

 lected by Forrest, and if they live to flower the place of the species 

 can be determined. Here probably also belongs P. breviseapa, Franch., 

 although its leaves are more membranous than in the others named. 

 I also place here, until more is known of it, P. Esquirolii, Petitm., a 

 plant collected by Bodinier in the province of Kweichow. 



Chinese Species of the Davidi Section. 

 Purple and lilac-blue flowers. 

 P. coerulea, G. Forrest P. Davidi, Franch. 



P. breviseapa, Franch. P. Esquirolii, Petitm. 



P. ov alt folia, Franch. 



Section Sonchifolia. 



Two species — P. sonchifolia, Franch., and P. taraxacoides, 

 Balf. fil. — possess flower and fruit characters quite like those of species 

 of the Davidi section, but have more or less runcinate leaves, which 

 expand after the flower. They are like no others. Neither is in 

 cultivation, but the large flowers with fringed petals of P. sonchifolia, 

 Franch., make it a desirable species. It is the plant described by 

 Forrest under the name P. gratissima, G. Forrest, and of which he 

 speaks in glowing terms. Seedlings of it were raised in cultivation, 

 but did not prosper. 



Chinese Species of the Sonchifolia Section. 

 Lilac-blue flower. 

 P. sonchifolia, Franch. 

 P. taraxacoides, Balf. fil. 



Hemsley used the name Carolinella generically to include 

 three species of plants collected by Henry in the region of Mengtsz, 

 South Yunnan: Pax reduced Hemsley' s genus Carolinella, making 

 it a section of Primula, into which he brought the Caucasian P. mega- 

 seaefolia, Boiss., a very different plant. Excluding the Caucasian 

 plant, I take Pax's section for the present to include Henry's three 

 Chinese plants which have an isolated and doubtful position in the 

 genus. 



Section Carolinella. 



The diagnostic character of the section is the fruit, which at de- 

 hiscence forms a fringe of many narrow teeth round the open mouth 

 of the capsule from which the top has fallen. The physiognomy of 

 two of the species— P. Henryi, (Hemsl.) Pax, and P. Partschiana, Pax— 



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