EXTRACTS OF PROCEEDINGS. 
cxli 
to render the display in the Conservatory most attractive. 
There were also several other interesting collections of new and 
rare plants. Mr. R, Dean showed a fine group of varieties of 
Primula amcena. Messrs. Paul and Son and William Paul and 
Son displayed some splendid blooms of Roses; and Messrs. 
Barr and Sugden’s show of cut Narcissi attracted much 
attention; decorative groups were also staged by Messrs. 
C. Lee and Son, Mr. J. Wills, Messrs. Hayes and Co., Messrs. 
Hawkins and Bennett, Messrs. Osborn and Sons, and Mr. 
J. Aldous. 
The Assistant Secretary, in addressing the meeting, remarked 
that few plants were easier to grow and more satisfactory in 
their results than the several species of Primula, which had all 
been greatly improved during the last few years. From the 
common Primrose, P. vulgaris , and the old crimson variety, 
P. v. auriculceflora, had sprung numerous beautiful forms ; so 
also from P. veris, the Cowslip, had been derived the Oxlip 
Primrose and the varieties of Polyanthus. On the last 
occasion had been seen the advances made in the cultivation 
of P. auricula, and now we were shown the progress which had 
been effected with the Oriental species from China and Japan. 
Many of the new species recently introduced by Mr. Elwes, 
from the Himalayas, were under distribution to Fellows from 
Chiswick. He showed a plant of P. sikkimensis, as a type of 
the Indian species. The parent of the many forms of Japanese 
Primulas exhibited by Mr. Dean was P. amcena, which had been 
introduced some fifteen or sixteen years before by Mr. J. G. 
Yeitch, but there had always been considerable difficulty in 
raising seedlings from it; the pods would form, but never ripen; 
but a few years ago success was achieved simultaneously by 
three cultivators, Mr. Dean, Mr. Allan, and M. Lemoine; 
almost the entire stock of the two former gentlemen was 
exhibited at this meeting, and M. Lemoine’s were very similar. 
P. amcena never affords seed, but the white variety, P. amcena 
• alba does, hence the varieties. The plants are perfectly hardy, 
but if grown out of doors, lose their foliage in Winter and bloom 
later in the Spring. If it is desired to propagate them the 
soil should be shaken away from the roots when the foliage dies 
down, and the crowns separated; but if left quite undisturbed 
the plants will throw up grander heads of bloom. Out ol a 
