333 
Meconopsis and Cathcartia . 
met with is M. horridula ; at or above 16,000 feet this is practically the only 
form present. To the north of the inner passes below 16,000 feet both forms 
occur side by side, and there is every transition between M. horridula proper with 
all the scapes simple, discrete, and radical ; M. horridula still, but with some 
or all of the scapes agglutinated at the base ; and M. racemosa, with all the flower 
disposed on a central several-flowered scape in a bractless raceme-like cyme. In 
specimens from the hills above Lhassa we sometimes find that the lowest and last- 
opening flower of this cyme is subtended by a leafy bract such as is associated 
with the lowest three-fourths to four-fifths of the flowers of M. aculeata and M. 
sinuala, and with the lowest half to two-thirds of the flowers of M. rudis. When 
we take into consideration the fact that the form distinguished by Maximowicz 
as M. racemosa occurs throughout central and eastern as well as southern Tibet, 
and is the only form that overflows into the high alpine valleys of Szechuen and 
Kansuh, while M. horridula is confined to southern Tibet and the high alpine 
valleys of Sikkim and Phari, it is reasonable to surmise that M. horridula may 
be no more than a somewhat reduced condition of a Tibetan species whereof 
M. racemosa is the usual state. 
The evidence from the Aculeatae , incomplete though it be, is sufficient to 
show that the morphological character based on the presence or absence of a stem, 
though it has in the past been considered of sectional value, is not adequate to 
distinguish one form from another as species. It is also sufficient to show that the 
physiological features of a monocarpic or polycarpic habit, or of flowering in one 
year or two years from seed, do not always hold good in individual species. 
Primulinae. Three species of this group, M. Delavayi , M. lancifolia and 
M. prhnulina are unknown in cultivation. The remaining species, M. Henrici » 
has recently been introduced to English gardens. Its behaviour at Coombe Wood 
in the hands of Messrs. Veitch and Sons, who have had much experience in 
growing species of Meconopsis , leads them to think that it cannot be perennial. 
It flowers in one year from seed. 
Bellae. This group includes a single species, M. Bella, Seeds of this sent 
to Europe by the writer from India have germinated at Kew, with Lieut.-Col. D. D. 
Cunningham at Torquay, with Mr. Bulley at Neston. They have also germinated at 
Geneva and elsewhere on the continent. It was stated in 1905 (Flora and Sylva, iii. 
166, and Gard. Chron., ser. III. xxxvii. 370), that plants at Baden and at Edinburgh 
were likely to flower. Actual flowering was not, however, announced for either place, 
and the first record of its blossoming in cultivation has come this year (1906) 
from Edinburgh. In'^the case of this species two years have elapsed between 
seed and flower ; there is little doubt that it is truly polycarpic. The crown of 
leaves persists during the winter. Unlike all other species so far known, this grows 
naturally on the faces of vertical cliffs ; instead of flowering in spring or early 
summer, it flowers in late summer and autumn. 
Grandes. This, the largest and one of the most natural of the groups of species 
in the genus, is characterized by the existence of a stigma like that of Cathcartia ’ 
section Eucathcariia. Striking, however, as this peculiarity is, it is not confined to the 
group ; it recurs in the otherwise very different group Chelidonifoliae , a single member 
