158 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



I have seen no specimens, and I place it here mainly because of the 

 foliage as described. 



Chinese Species of the Souliei Group. 

 Purple flowers. Yellow flowers. 



P. Souliei, Franch. P. flava, Maxim. 

 P. urtici folia, Maxim. 



Section Macrocarpa. 



The section named Macrocarpae by Pax after the endemic 

 Japanese species P. macrocarpa, Maxim., with which he associated 

 several other species, is unnatural from my point of view. I have 

 removed all the species to other sections excepting P. macrocarpa, 

 Maxim., and P. nipponica, Yatabe, another endemic Japanese species 

 which Pax took to be a variety of P. macrocarpa, Maxim. Along 

 with these two species to which I refer when writing of the Japanese 

 Primulas should be associated two other species — P. Hemsleyi, Petitm., 

 a mauve-flowered plant collected by Wilson in bogs about Tatsienlu, 

 and P. gemmifera, Batalin, a Kansu plant which produces bulbils in 

 the axils of the leaves. Pax associated this species with P. malacoides, 

 Franch., and P. Forbesii, Franch., a relationship which I do not 

 recognize. The plants have petiolate leaves with elliptic lamina, and 

 the campanulate calyx is cut half-way down. The section comes near 

 the section Cuneifolia, but is distinguished from it by the form of 

 calyx and by the cylindric fruit projecting far beyond the calyx. 



Chinese Species of the Macrocarpa Section. 

 P. gemmifera, Batalin 

 P. Hemsleyi, Petitm. 



Pax did good service in clearing up the confusion that long prevailed 

 regarding colour-forms of the Himalayan species P. Siuartii, Wall., 

 and in showing that it is a distinct yellow-flowered species and all the 

 purple forms assigned to it are microforms of P. nivalis, Pallas. This 

 question of yellow and purple flowers within the same species is a 

 subject deserving attention as an oxydase problem. Except in the 

 Vernales section, yellow and purple in the corolla- limb of Primulas 

 seems to be diagnostic, although the eye and the tube of a purple may 

 show yellow, and a yellow may occasionally show a flesh tint, as is 

 the case, Mr. W. W. Smith tells me, in P. obliqua, W. W. Smith, a 

 Himalayan plant of the section I am now writing about. Mr. Smith 

 also writes to me : " The aggregate P. Dickieana, Wall. + P. Pantlingii 

 King, is a striking — the only — species of the Himalayas which shows 

 great colour variation in the same spot. It is very variable, and the 

 observer sees at a glance that it is no question of confusion of species, 

 or hybridism. The locus is isolated and there is no question of inter- 

 mixture." Duthie also states that the corolla of P. tangutica, Duthie, 

 varies from yellow to dark chocolate or almost black. 



