COLLECTIONS OF 1914. 
99 
divaricate calyx-lobes make its assignation uncertain. A later lot 
of seed, distributed as F 464, is almost certainly F 178 beyond 
shadow of doubt ; but as it was collected by a Chinese collector 
I have thought best to avoid the possibility of a confusion. This 
has a certain look of P. jesoana, but is clearly distinct, if only 
in the much longer and finer pedicels and better blossoms. 
Primula No. 16 (F 193) is doubtful, and distributed only under a 
caution. It is a most precious find of Purdom's — a glaucous-grey 
erect-leaved clumping Primula of the nivalis group, with the habit 
of the rest, but blossoms of clear yellow. Only seven specimens 
of this were originally seen in 191 1, on one high grassy crest of 
Tibet, in company with P. Maximowiczii and P. Purdomii ; on 
Purdom's return to the station in 1914 the flower was over, and 
the two solitary plants discoverable in seed could not therefore 
be positively guaranteed to be this new yellow nivalis, though 
the probabilities in their favour are so large as almost to amount 
to certainty. [Seed sent under the next number has proved to 
contain this in a huge percentage. 1916.] 
Primula No. 17 (F 192) should be the unsurpassable and worthily 
named P. Purdomi. This Queen of the Nivalis group belongs to 
the high grass-lands of the Tibetan Alps opposite J6-ni. Though I 
have not yet been dazzled by the spectacle of its bloom, I have 
been interested to watch its habit (they say it flowers best in 
alternate years) and to note that, while it is a typical turf-species 
of the nivalis cousinhood, like P. Maximowiczii, P. No. 16, P. 
Woodwardii, yet it has idiosyncrasies not shared by the others. It 
is perceptibly more local, and, though it may often freely be found 
in the folds and slopes of the vast upper hay fields, it has a clear 
liking for more level (that is to say, more moisture-retaining) 
tracts, such as small flat stretches along the descending ridges, 
and especially for the sedgy cool flats in the upper stretches of 
the valleys, beside the cold and brawling ice-green becks of the 
Min S'an. No hay or rushy turf can be too coarse and dense 
for it, it seems ; its need is evidently the even distribution of 
damp by the grass roots in summer, and then, in winter, a thatch 
of yet more special depth and dryness under the dry snow than 
that required by all the others. It is a noble and robust grower, 
very different from the small (yet how beautiful !) specimens 
shown at the Conference. I have seen the seed-scapes at least 
two feet high, with some thirty stalwart erect pods. It was 
first collected by Purdom in 1911, and exhibited at the 
Conference of 1913. 
Primula No. 18 (F 194) is P. tangutica, one of the few really frightful 
Primulas — so ugly that only under protest have I sent any seed 
at all, though it abounds with P. gemmifera in the highest 
earth-fans of the Tibetan Alps, in habit like a small untidy 
P. Maximowiczii, with Maximowiczii 's variable flowers reduced 
to wispy starved little ragged stars of dull chocolate and 
H 2 
