I48 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



is hardly primuloid. P. obovata, (Hemsl.) Pax, the third species, has 

 more of a Primula form. The flowers are apparently purple. We know 

 too little of these interesting species, no one of which is in cultivation. 

 Their introduction is to be wished for on morphological as well as on 

 horticultural grounds. 



The species published in 1907 by Petitmengin under the name 

 P. cyclaminifolia, Franch., as an ally of P. chartacea, Franch., is 

 P. Partschiana, Pax. 



Chinese Species of the Carolinella Section. 

 P. Henryi, (Hemsl.) Pax 

 P. obovata, Pax 

 P. Partschiana, Pax 



Pax's section Petiolares is based upon the Himalayan species 

 P. petiolaris, Wall. This plant does not occur in China, although 

 plants from there have been so named. The group is not a natural 

 one, and I use it here for the present only because I do not know enough 

 of the two Chinese species Pax includes in it to place them elsewhere. 



Section Petiolaris. 



The growth-form of this section is a rosette, but with the flowers 

 on short scapes not rising much, if at all, above the foliage, and this 

 rather than flower-character seems to mark the section. The section 

 will require revision when we know more of the life-history of the plants 

 in it. None of the Chinese species are in cultivation, and none of 

 them rival the fine Himalayan member of the section — P. Winteri, 

 Gill. The species mentioned by Pax are P. odontocalyx, Pax and 

 P. mupinensis, Franch. To these I add P. taliensis, G. Forrest, and 

 P. vernicosa, F. K. Ward, a curious dwarf from the Mekong-Salween 

 Divide, with little claim to a place here. The plant referred to by 

 Forrest as P. petiolaris var. sulphur ea, Hook., is possibly P. mupinensis, 

 Franch., of this section. 



Chinese Species of the Petiolaris Section. 

 P. mupinensis, Franch. P. taliensis, G. Forrest 



P. odontocalyx, Pax P. vernicosa, F. K. Ward 



Types are mixed up in Pax's section of Monocarpicae. The 

 majority of the species in it form a natural group of great variability, 

 and it is these which I take for the basis of the following section— 

 Malacoides. 



Section Malacoides. 



This section is of horticultural interest because it includes P. 

 malacoides, Franch., one of the popular plants of the day, and that 

 species is its type. We have here to look at ' weeds ' of cultivated 



