206 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and often puberulous leaves, and many small flowers on short pedicels. 

 It occurs at lower elevations usually than P. denticulata, and so far 

 has been recorded as met with in Kumaon and Bhutan only at altitudes 

 of from 4,500 to 9,000 feet. It is of no interest from the standpoint 

 of cultivation, since it is not a very pretty species. (Fig. 92). 



P. bellidifolia is the Eastern representative of P. farinosa and has 

 leaves almost tomentose. P. glabra and P. pusilla are very much 

 like each other, except that the latter is hairy and the mouth of the 

 corolla completely obstructed by a woolly mass. It has been re- 

 peatedly collected. I found it in August 1881 in Sikkim, on the 

 slopes above Jongri, 14-15,000 feet. It has since then been secured 

 by Elwes and others, while Hobson has extended its area to Yatung 

 in Eastern Tibet. Professor Balfour writes me that they have this 

 year raised P. glabra from seed obtained from Calcutta. 



P. sapphirina is perhaps the most beautiful of the capitate Primulas 

 of India. The whole plant does not exceed two inches in height, but 

 the little heads of flowers have been most fittingly accepted as justifying 

 the name sapphirina. It was originally collected by Sir J. D. Hooker 

 in Sikkim, and has since been found by one or two other collectors, 

 and it flowered in Kew Gardens in May 1887. Recently it has been 

 found by Hobson in Yatung in Tibet. P. muscoides is a densely tufted 

 species and apparently the smallest of all Primulas. It is found in 

 Sikkim at altitudes of 15,000 feet. In some respects it is much like 

 P. minutissima, and is in fact the Eastern representative of that 

 species, but it is much smaller and has the petals very much more 

 deeply bifid. 



Before leaving the Denticulata series I may repeat that they are 

 perhaps the least liable to vary of all the Indian species. Alpine 

 examples are simply dwarfed states, and never assume the condition 

 of having solitary, exceptionally large flowers. In fact it would seem 

 as if the tendency were to vary in lower rather than higher altitude, 

 and by increasing the number and reducing the size of the flowers. 



In conclusion I may mention that the well-known [W. Asian] P. 

 auriculata doubtless belongs to this series, though the flowers of the 

 capitulum (like those of P. erosa) are often shortly stalked. Its long- 

 leaved variety much resembles P. capitata. P. algida is exceedingly 

 like the Indian form of P. farinosa, and P. capitellata, Boiss., is not 

 very unlike P. bellidifolia. So also P. cernua, Franch. (from Yunnan), 

 might be characterized as a small condition of P. capitata, possessing 

 the pilose leaves of P. bellidifolia and the pendent flowers of P. capitata. 

 Lastly, P. Viali, Delavay, also from Yunnan, is perhaps the most 

 aberrant of all Primroses, in that the sessile flowers are crowded on 

 greatly elongated spikes. 



2. Soldanelloides. — This is one of the rarest and at the same 

 time most charming series of Indian Primulas. They are at first sight 

 as dissimilar from the other capitate species as could well be imagined. 

 Their soft, hairy, deeply toothed leaves, large inflated calyx, and 

 deflexed flowers might have been expected to suggest a position for 



