OBSERVATIONS ON INDIAN PRIMULAS, 



203 



I do not advance that classification as absolutely final. Indeed, 

 there are here and there objections to it, and consequently it is possible 

 that with a more careful and extended study of the splendid collections 

 of Chinese species recently to hand, it may be found desirable to 

 form one or two additional sections and to carry to these a few of 

 the Sikkim forms, such as P. Elwesiana and tenella. But I believe 

 future research is likely to confirm the desirability of some such 

 classification as I have indicated. It is in strict accord with the 

 obvious affinities of the plants one to the other, and, I am convinced, 

 is likely to afford useful indications of the lines along which cultivation 

 and hybridization in the future may be found most profitable. It 

 will, for example, be seen that the panorama of Indian forms commences 

 with plants having the leaves thick, rugose, glabrous, oblong-spathulate, 

 mealy, and passes to those with the leaves rotund, distinctly stalked, 

 and often pilose or tomentose. Parallel with these gradually expanding 

 leaf conditions, we have the flowers capitate, then becoming more 

 and more stalked, until they are completely umbellate and finally 

 verticillate. In both conditions we meet with single-flowered states, 

 and these are determined as capitate or umbellate according to the 

 position of the bracts, but only when that characteristic is taken in 

 conjunction with the nature of the leaf. 



If the bract occurs immediately outside the calyx, the plant may 

 be accepted as belonging to the capitate series, more especially if 

 the leaves are spathulate and rugose. It may also be noted that 

 I have referred each section to geographical groups. There are 

 a few species that occur here and there throughout the entire Primula 

 area of India. Others are much more local. The climate of the N.W. 

 Himalaya being very different from that of the East, it will be found 

 that the species of the N.W. will succeed better as a rule in Europe 

 than those from the E. Himalaya. Partly on that account, but 

 also in order to mark the existence of two great Indian centres, I have 

 assorted the Primulas of India within each of the sections into (1) 

 the N.W. Himalayan and (2) Central and Eastern Himalayan forms. 

 And in passing I would observe that I have given each of my sections 

 the name of the Indian species that is most characteristic of it. It 

 might have been of more universal acceptation had I employed 

 the names of the European wild or better-known cultivated forms, 

 but I desired to concentrate attention on India as far as possible, 

 and hence have chosen Indian names for my sections. 



With your permission, gentlemen, I will now discuss the more 

 striking examples of each of the sections formed by me, and at the 

 same time mention a few of the European species that will be found 

 to fall into these. 



1. Denticulata. — This is the most cosmopolitan assemblage 

 of all. P. farinosa, which is perhaps better known in Europe than 

 the Indian P. denticulata, is fully characteristic of the series and 

 is its English indigenous representative — the Bird's-eye Primrose. 

 The flowers in all the members of the series are sessile, purple to 



