April 27, 1882. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER 
347 
solitary plant—a Tyrian purple variety, rich and striking. The 
fertilisation was left to Nature, as it always safely may be in a 
garden of Primroses. To detail the result in this instance would 
necessitate the description of scores of varieties—one or two 
exact counterparts of the wildings in the lane, the others em¬ 
bracing perhaps every colour in which Primroses have been 
clothed, yet not one exactly like the parent, from the. richest 
magenta, through all the gradations of purple, crimson, and rosy 
lilac down to clear white, one plant having flowers as large, 
round, and pure as Gilbert’s Harbinger, but a true Primrose, the 
flowers being solitary, not produced in umbels like those of the 
fine variety named. Nor are they produced in a whorl round a 
central crown as is the case with many Primroses. A few are of 
this character, but the majority are the exact opposite, the flowers 
in a dense mass occupying the centre of the plant with a rosette 
of growths and foliage round them. It is this valuable habit that 
renders the plants so effective. 
But such yearling plants as these could not be produced in all 
soils. Here it is of a marl-like or rather warp-like charactt r, 
which bakes hard in the sun but is converted into powder with 
the smasher. Though 200 feet above the distant but visible sea, 
it once no doubt formed the ocean bed, and is rich in the alluvial 
deposits of centuries, the chalk having been washed to the sea 
between the downs which break the line of vision. If this weie 
not so—that is, if chalk were present in the whitish-looking earth, 
Rhododendrons, Heaths, and Furze could scarcely luxuriate as 
they do in a medium so heavy that it can only be dug by snatches 
between the showers, and the lumps smashed when partially 
baked by the sun. Furze has been mentioned, and the double 
variety is represented by magnificent golden masses, such as no 
other shrub can equal. But Primroses are the pride of the garden. 
They are emphatically flowers of the past and the present, for 
they were the first of flowers planted in boyhood, while, perhaps 
because of that, they remain as popular as ever, and their charms 
wmm. 
Fig. 71.— Weald of Sussex. 
appear to increase with the silvery locks of those who love them. 
How many there are—no one can tell how many—who can say 
with Clare— 
“ In April time 
I spoilt the Daisy’s earliest prime ; 
Robbed every Primrose root I met, 
And ofttimes got the root to set; 
And joyful home each nosegay bore. 
And felt as I shall feel no more.” 
But if we can no more feel as in the days of Auld Lang Syne, 
we shall feel no worse, and be no worse, for loving flowers, tending 
them and improving them, for we thus show our appreciation of 
the gifts so freely scattered around us. 
There are other flowers in Sussex. In the garden in question a 
single Wallflower commands attention by its sturdy habit, dark 
glandular leaves, massive spikes, and large richly coloured round- 
petalled flowers. It is curious to observe that the only form flower¬ 
ing last year was Cheiranthus bybridus, the flowers of which are 
of a coppery slate colour, yet the seed saved from these produced 
few plants like the parent, the majority being immeasurably 
superior, distinct and fine—far finer than the dark variety sold iu 
London in such immense numbers. In the same Primrose garden 
are to be seen the great English and small true Bardfield Oxlips, 
Cowslips in many colours, Jackanapes, and other curious forms 
of this very sportive genus. Pinks and Carnations grow with great 
vigour, and Auriculas and alpine plants of all kinds thrive in a 
remarkable manner. There are also outside the garden wild flowers 
in prodigious numbers. The ground in large breadths is white 
with Wood Anemones. 
“ The flower, enamoured of the sun, 
At bis departure bangs her bead and weeps. 
And shrouds her sweetness up, and keeps 
Sad vigils, like a cloistered nun, 
Till bis reviving ray appears, 
Waking her beauty as be dries her tears.” 
Daffodils, too, grow wild, and they never appear to such advan¬ 
tage as when springing from the grass where Nature planted them 
Amongst them grow the Orchises, luxuriant plants of 0. maculata. 
