PRIMULA CONFERENCE. 



171 



The Asiatic centre of the section is the Caucasus and Armenia. 

 P. elatior, (Linn.) Hill, occurs freely there in its microforms P. cordifolia, 

 Ruprecht, P. Pallasii, Lehm., and P. pseudoelatior, Kusnetzow, and 

 does not leave the area. On the other hand, P. officinalis, (Linn.) Hill, 

 is there rare in its microform P. Columnae, Ten., but as P. macrocalyx, 

 Bunge, is the member of the section which spreads out from the 

 centre through Asia as far as the Altai. P. Ruprechtii, Kusnetzow, 

 represents the European P. leucophylla, Pax. 



Some of these have been and are in cultivation, but they have 

 not influenced horticulture, nor do they promise to influence it, as 

 have the other members of the section. 



The ordinary form of P. acaulis, (Linn.) Hill, is found in several parts 

 of Armenia, and a curious hairy microform of it — P. heteroehroma, Stapf 

 — appears in North Persia. But the microform known as P. Sibthorpii 

 Hoffmannsegg, or as P. acaulis var. rubra, Sibth. & Sm., is the red- 

 flowered plant spread from Greece through the Caucasus to North 

 Persia, which is a parent of all our forms of pink, red, purple, and blue 

 primroses. 



No less important from the gardening standpoint is another 

 member of this section, P. amoena, Bieb., a name over which there 

 has been much writing in gardening papers in old days. The purple- 

 flowered P. amoena, Bieb., stands to P. Sibthorpii, Hoffmannsegg, 

 in the same relation as P. elatior, (Linn.) Hill, to P. acaulis, (Linn.) 

 Hill — the one has a scape, the other is scapeless. P. amoena, 

 Bieb., was introduced to cultivation in Britain in the thirties of last 

 century, and was then figured in the " Botanical Magazine." It is 

 a delightful species which varies greatly in nature, but in recent years 

 it seems to have dropped out of cultivation. The plant commonly 

 cultivated as P. amoena, Bieb., is P. Sibthorpii, Hoffmannsegg. There 

 is an excuse for this, inasmuch as both the plants were originally in- 

 cluded by Bieberstein in his description of P. amoena, Bieb. Further 

 confusion in the nomenclature has been introduced by the use of the 

 name P. altaica, because P. amoena, Bieb., has been called in gardens 

 P. altaica, so has P. Sibthorpii, Hoffmannsegg, and its products ; then 

 the microform of P. elatior known as P. Pallasii, Lehm., was named 

 in the first instance by Pallas P. altaica, and lastly the plant figured 

 as P. intermedia, Sims, in the " Botanical Magazine " for 1809, is 

 a form of P. farinosa, Linn., for which Lehmann primarily used the 

 name P. altaica, and to this plant the name rightfully belongs. It 

 were better were the name P. altaica dropped altogether. 



Included by Pax in this section — and I treat it here although I 

 do not think it is in the right place — is a charming Primula of recent 

 introduction — P. Juliae, Kusnetzow. The plant is Caucasian, and was 

 discovered only in 1901 — a fact that may give us hope for other 

 treasures when the Caucasus is more fully explored. I believe it 

 was introduced to cultivation through Sundermann, but its first 

 recorded flowering in this country was at the Oxford Botanic Garden 

 in 191 1. It is a free grower, liking moisture, and producing an 



