214 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of this assemblage, being strongly N.W. Himalayan. The form 

 of P. nivalis collected at St. Matthew Island during the British Behring 

 Sea Commission still further preserves this peculiarity. It might 

 be described as closely allied to variety Moorcroftiana. And, as if to 

 confirm the reduction of P. Stuartii to P. purpurea, there is a yellow- 

 flowered form of P. nivalis that has been described by Regel as var. 

 Bayernii. The Altai form of P. nivalis corresponds closely with the 

 leathery-leaved form of the Indian condition, for which at one time 

 I proposed the name P. plantaginea — a smaller plant, with narrower 

 leaves than P. Moorcroftiana. 



5. Petiolaris. — This in more senses than one may be described 

 as the most sportive assemblage of Indian Primulas. The species 

 thrown together under it are not only found to vary freely, according 

 to soil, exposure, altitude, &c., in which met with, but they obey the 

 dictates of cultivation almost instantly. The central feature that 

 separates the group may be said to be the presence of a distinct petiole 

 in place of the spathulate-cuneate sheathing base of the leaf met with 

 in the majority of the species placed in the other sections of this 

 classification. The name Petiolaris at once suggests that peculiarity, 

 but, strangely enough, it has been given to the species of the assemblage 

 that is least petiolate, namely P. petiolaris. There have been described 

 in the " Flora of British India " seven varieties of that species, but 

 with a very little stretch of imagination that number might easily 

 be doubled. In three of these varieties the leaves are usually obovate- 

 spathulate-sessile, but occasionally a rotund leaf borne on a long 

 naked petiole may be found. In the other varieties, petiolate leaves 

 are universally present, along with spathulate sessile leaves, and in 

 one form, that called Edgeworthii, the heart of the plant consists of 

 a compact rosette of small sessile leaves, while placed on the circum- 

 ference are many very large ovate-elliptic leaves, borne on petioles 

 3 to 6 inches long. Lastly, the flowers may be solitary axillary, or 

 crowded within the axils, on either an exceedingly short or a greatly 

 elongated common stalk. One variety, scapigera, has a whorl of 

 petiolate, perfectly formed, but minute leaves, in place of the bracts, 

 surrounding the umbel of long pedicels. Among the spathulate-sessile- 

 leaved forms, one which Wallich named nana has linear-oblong sharply 

 toothed (erose) leaves, and usually large solitary flowers. From this 

 form the transition is almost imperceptible into P. Stirtoniana and 

 P. Hookeri. These might in fact be viewed as alpine states but for 

 one circumstance, namely, that while the mouth of the flower in 

 P. petiolaris is open and never obstructed by an annulus, both these 

 alpine plants have the throat constricted by a distinct annulus. 

 Whether this is only a special sexual adaptation to facilitate fertilization 

 or is a specific structural peculiarity, I cannot at present say. I have 

 accordingly retained them as species, but P. petiolaris varies so 

 remarkably that it would be no great stretch of imagination to uphold 

 the forms mentioned as only alpine states of the protean species 

 P. petiolaris. 



