AUGUST. 



113 



NEW DOUBLE CHINESE PRIMROSES. 



WITH AN ILLUSTRATION. 



The double-flowered varieties of the Chinese Primrose {Primula prami- 

 tens), which we have now the pleasure of introducing to our readers, have 

 been obtained by the Messrs. F. & A, Smith, of Dulvvich, to whom we are 

 indebted for our drawings of them. Chinese Primroses are exceedingly valu- 

 able garden plants ; and these forms are peculiarly meritorious as Chinese 

 Primroses, their merit consisting chiefly in two qualities, which are these : — ■ 

 (1), They bear flowers which are amongst the finest and most perfectly double 

 of any which have yet been produced ; and (2), they may be perpetuated by 

 seeds, which as far as we know is not the case with any other of the full- 

 double sorts previously obtained. 



Double-flowered forms of this very useful decorative plant arc not now 

 rare, and all the better ones, at least, are highly ornamental. The old double 

 red and double white, it will be remembered,' belong to the typical race in 

 which the margins of the flowers are quite smooth and even, with a notch at 

 the end of each segment. Even these have been and are still highly prized as 

 ornamental plants, from the crowded masses of flowers they produce, and their 

 long endurance as compared with the ordinary kinds ; but they have never 

 become common in consequence of their being only propagated by cuttings or 

 division. A very few years since a much larger and finer double red variety, 

 called atrorosea, was brought into notice by Mr. Turner, of Slough, to whom a 

 certificate was awarded for it by the Horticultural Society. This, which 

 belonged to the modern race with fringed margins to the flowers, proved to 

 be a very decided acquisition from its size and fulness, as Avell as from the 

 rich deep rose colour of its flowers. 



Still more recently some continental varieties, named nivea plena and rubella 

 plena, which were said to have the property of being reproduced in the dupli- 

 cated state from the seeds, were introduced by Mr. Bull, of Chelsea. They 

 were only semidouble, but young plants raised from them proved to be semi- 

 double too, so that in them a step seemed to have been gained towards the 

 acquisition of a double-flowered race reproduceable from seeds. Hardly, how- 

 ever, had the existence of this seed-bearing semidouble form become known, 

 when the varieties we now figure, having this very property of reproducing 

 themselves from seeds, yet being at the same time fully equal in merit to the 

 very best double forms yet known, made their appearance. Bearing in mind 

 the decorative adaptability of the Chinese Primrose, we cannot but hail them 

 as ranking among the most valuable of recent acquisitions ; and this judgment 

 will,_we think, be supported by the very admirable representations we now 

 publish. 



Both the varieties, it will be seen, belong to the double fringed-flowered 

 group, and both of them are of vigorous free-blooming habit. That called 

 delicata {fig. 2), has the flowers at first white, afterwards changing to a deli- 

 cate blush. The blossoms are individually bold, full-double, and measuring 

 nearly a couple of inches across. In addition to the duplication of the corolla 

 segments, the central organs frequently, if not constantly, become converted 

 into small flowers, two or three of which could be traced in most of the 

 blossoms Ave examined. The variety is in every way equal in merit to the fine 

 sort named atrorosea, to which must be added its property of self-reproduction. 

 The Floral Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society has marked its 

 opinion of the merit of this flower by the award of a Pirst-class Certificate, and 

 a similar award has been made by the Royal Botanic Society. Among the 



VOL. I. ! 



