SOME SCARCE BRITISH ALPINES 
333 
little trait, betraying, perhaps , a memory 
ofcolder day s when the blooming season 
had to be hurried on for fear of the glacial 
winter, is seen in its blooming earlier 
in high and exposed places than in low 
and sheltered ones. On the bare fells 
it is in flower three weeks sooner than 
on the rich railway cuttings in the valley 
below. Under cultivation, here at all 
events, it shows perfect contentment, 
with fine size and colour. From long 
experience of its favourite haunts one 
would conclude thatthedifficulty found 
in its culture arises, at least in part, from 
the belief thatitis essentially abog-plant. 
It is often found in bogs and wet places 
over the English mountains, but it is 
still more frequently found in places 
quite free of surface moisture. Among 
the wiry moor grasses on the Scar-lime- 
stone, on steep railway banks, on sun- 
baked unwatered slopes, the " Pretty 
Bird-E'en" is no less abundant, no less 
vigorous and bright than in the marshes 
which are supposed to be necessary for 
its very existence. Clearly then, it de- 
pends rather on rain for its sustenance 
in these parts. This might lead one to 
try, in other districts, the effects of a 
dry sunny position in rich cool soil, 
with abundance of water all through 
the late summer and autumn, but only 
the necessary protectionagainst drought 
through the blooming season. Further, 
under cultivation the plant has a tire- 
some trick of emerging from the ground 
in winter and flourishing white roots 
in the air. This must be corrected, and 
then our lovely little Primula may per- 
haps thrive under altered conditions 
at least as well as in the elaborately 
waterlogged marshes of southern gar- 
dens, where it so soon pines away, — as 
much, probably, from excess of moist- 
ure, as from nostalgia of the fresh alpine 
air of its native hills. 
Primula farinosa alba. — This ex- 
quisite little plant was known even in 
Parkinson's time, and described in the 
Paradisus with all that author's delight- 
ful accuracy, though under an elaborate 
and long superseded name. Sincehisday, 
however, though often enough cata- 
logued, the true planthas seemed almost 
mythical, the specimens offered mostly 
showing on minute inspection hardly 
perceptible traces of lilac colouring 
which, perhaps with one season of culti- 
vation developed into a healthy pink. 
Some writers have thus been tempted 
into denying the existence of a true white 
jariiiosa^ classing all so described as 
mere anaemic and temporary lapses. In 
the course of many seasons' search in all 
our neighbouring stations, I have found 
only an occasional albino here and there, 
and even these, when closely viewed 
showed traces of colour sufficient to in- 
validate their claim to be Parkinson's 
farijiosa alba. But this year all doubts 
have been set at rest by a neighbour's 
discovery of first one, then a dozen, 
and finally more than a hundred pure 
white Bird's Eyes, all growing in one 
field. That this is the genuine plant 
there can be no doubt ; its tone is free 
from any suggestion of colour, and it 
accuratelyanswers Parkinson's descrip- 
tion in the matter of increased size, 
golden eye, and so forth : above all, 
its constancy is proved by the frequent 
presence round a snow-white mother- 
