After such valuable figures and descriptions of this plant 
had been given as those in the Collectanea Botanica and the 
Botanical Register, I should hardly have ventured upon again 
bringing this species before the public, were it not, that, owing 
to the extension of its cultivation, it has been found to vary 
from its original types, and thus to have effaced the most 
striking marks upon which its original specific character was 
founded;— marks by which, in the opinion of Mr Lindley, 
it seemed at variance with that of the genus itself, namely, its 
ten-toothed or multidentate calyx, and its inciso-crenate co- 
rolla. In the two individual plants which I have had the op- 
portunity of examining, the one in the Botanical Garden of 
Edinburgh, the other in that of Glasgow, both derived from 
the Horticultural Society of London, the calyx is constantly 
and distinctly five-toothed; and the corolla has its margin as 
entire as that of any other Primula. 
The variation (for the subject of the present plate we shall 
consider as the original stock) may, as Mr Gawler has inti- 
mated, arise from luxuriance, or it may prove to be of a more 
permanent nature. 
The obliquity of the limb of the corolla is a striking and 
very constant character, as is also the verticillate inflorescence. 
Our plants of P. sinensis have been in flower during al- 
most the whole winter, being kept in a cool airy part of the 
greenhouse; but the season is unfavourable to the ripening of 
the seed. 
For the truly beautiful drawing from which the annexed 
engraving was made, I am indebted to my friend K. K. Gre- 
viLLE, Esq. ; and for many of the above remarks to Dr 
Graham. 
Fig. 1. Corolla, cut open. Fig. 2. Calyx. Fig. 3. Section of a calyx, to 
''shew the pistil within,— 7Hare or less magnified. 
