148 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ February 25, 1886. 
of oblong or oblong lanceolate succulent leaves, varying in length 
from 4 inches to a foot, obscurely toothed, or in young leaves quite 
entire at the margins. The flowers are collected in a loose head 
surrounded at the base by short pointed bracts, varying from a dozen 
to twenty, an inch or more in diameter, bright red or crimson purple, 
with a large yellow eye. Calyx cup-shaped, glandular, and often 
reddish tinted. It is found on the margins of Alpine brooks, through 
the higher rocky mountains of Colorada to those of Nevada, and even 
to Arizona on Mount Lincoln as high as 13,000 feet above sea level. 
It flowers May and June. 
P. pedemontana, Thom. —The Piedmontese Primrose seems to be 
one of those difficult customers anent which doctors differ. All the 
leading authorities seem to agree to its belonging to the Auricula 
group, and a close ally of P. viscosa, though all differ as to its true 
position, and whether it deserves specific distinction. In De Can¬ 
dolle’s “ Prod.” it is included under P. villosa, Jacq. In Reichen- 
bach’s “ FI. Germanica" it receives specifie distinction, with P. 
pubescens, Jacq., and P. villosa, Jacq , as synonyms. In Wyman’s 
“ Conspectus Europseus ” it is also made a species, with P. Bonjeana, 
Ueug., as a syn. ; while in Mr. Baker’s preliminary list it is included 
under viscosa, Vill., and which I believe is made to include P. villosa, 
Jacq , but not P. pubescens, Jacq. 
So far as we have noticed this plant under cultivation as regards 
appearance and habit of growth we would be inclined to isolate it 
Fiff. 25.—P. pedemontana var. 
from all the others, for however near in botanical affinity it may be 
to P. viscosa, which is made to include a host of plants which gar¬ 
deners consider distinct, as a garden plant it is distinct, so much so 
as to warrant a separate name. It would seem to be a variable plant 
under certain conditions ; hairy or without hairs; in some almost 
entire leaves, while others are distinctly dentate, those received from 
Mount Cenis being hairy with the margins almost entire,^while those 
brought home by Mr. Maw from the Piedmont have entire leaves 
almost devoid of hairs, and resembling P. integrifolia in habit. It is 
an admirable plant for the rockery, where it thrives well on a western 
exposure in rich shallow soil well drained, and where it never fails 
to give an abundance of flowers. The rosettes of leaves are formed 
close to the ground ; leaves oblong or obovate, obtusely toothed or 
not, the margins covered with glandular hairs, in some few. The 
flower stem rises 1 or 2 inches high, carrying a large globular head 
of medium-sized pretty rose-purple flowers, often pale lilac with a 
yellowish centre. It flowers with us in April. Native habitats high 
Alps of Piedmont and Switzerland, where it is said to be one of the 
most lovely plants of those regions. Increased by division. Syn., 
P. Bonjeana, Heug. It is also suggested as being a hybrid P. hirsuta 
X glutinosa. There seems to be nothing, however, in favour of this. 
P. penduliflora, A. Kern , we have not seen in flower. In leaf 
it much resembles P. sikkimensis, and is doing well with similar 
treatment. 
P. petiolaris, Wall. —An Indian species of extreme variability, 
if one may judge by the numerous varieties to which it has given 
rise, and likely in the hands of hybridists and careful cultivators to 
give a fresh lease to this "class of plants. The leaves are mealy 
or not, varying from 2 to 10 inches long, ragged, toothed, or crenate, 
and of two distinct forms often on the same plant, either broad ob¬ 
ovate, without stalks, and narrowed into a winged petiole, or elliptic 
or cordate on long slender stalks. The flower stalks are about a foot 
high, surmounted with numerous large, purple, white, or pink flowers. 
It likes shade in a rather damp peaty r soil, flowering in autumn. 
Temperate Himalayas Simla to Bhotan, at from 4 to 14,000 feet 
above the sea level. All the forms or varieties are said to run into 
one another in all sorts of ways. Syns., P. cushia, Hamilt. \ P. tri- 
dentata, Don ; P. sessilis, Roxb. Varieties, Nana, Stracheyi, pulve- 
rulenta, sulphurea, scapigera, and Edgeworthii. 
P. Peyritschii, Stein, is said to be a hybrid (P. sub-Auricula 
X viscosa, Stein), and answers to the P. viscosa var. major of English 
gardens. It seems to us no more than a robust variety of P. viscosa, 
and will be treated along with that species.—D. 
VAEIETIES OF MELONS. 
Lest Mr. Iggulden should think silence discourteous I accede to 
his request, though I do not claim any special knowledge of Melon 
lore. During some years past I have only grown named varieties as 
a test of my own seedlings, and I have grown or seen most if not all 
those honoured with a certificate by the Royal Horticultural Society, 
in order to estimate the advance made in constitution, free bearing, 
size, appearance, and quality, and to transfer these advantages to my 
seedlings by cross-fertilisation. 
Those that have struck me as highly deserving of the honour of a 
certificate and pass to public favour, I have found to be Little Heath for 
hardiness, Golden Gem, Eastnor Castle, Read's Scarlet-flesh, Colston 
Basset, Exquisite, William Tillery, High Cross, and Blenheim Orange. 
All are first-class fruits, great advances in size and appearance on 
older varieties, but in quality I do not think any advance whatever has 
been made—none in green-flesh having the high quality of Egyptian 
or Pine Apple, and in scarlet-flesh varieties Scarlet Gem is unap¬ 
proached. I do not wish it to go forth that an Egyptian is to be 
preferred to William Tillery, or a Scarlet Gem to a Blenheim Orange 
from an economic point of view, but as a connoisseur there is no 
question as to which way the leaning would be. By increasing size 
we lose quality, though some hold the contrary opinion, alleging that 
cultivation and quality go together, though it would not require any 
great effort to prove the falsity of such reasoning in Apples, Pears, 
Plums, Grapes, and especially Melons. This is often exemplified in 
a marked manner on the exhibition table, a medium-sized fruit of 
some old and neglected variety carrying off the prize from very much 
larger and finer-looking fruit. I, however, like something to look at 
—a handsome shape, whether round or oval, and beautiful in colour, 
netting, and ribbing. Such make a show at table and are esteemed. 
Melons, as most growers are aware, run in types. The types, 
however, are so intermixed by cross-fertilisation as to be somewhat 
difficult of recognition, and some are very apt to revert back to the 
type, though seldom all at once, but in gradations of the forms on 
both sides of the parentage, advances, so far as I have observed, 
being on the male side, whilst reversions take place for the most part 
on that of the female. Beechwood is almost the only original Melon 
now cultivated, though we occasionally see Egyptian, Pine Apple, 
and Cashmere. Cantaloup is seldom seen, or Rock, and Windsor 
rarely puts in appearance. The latter types, however, are common 
enough in scarlet-flesh, indicated by the round fruit and the ribs, 
whilst the Egyptian is shown by the stripes or bands dividing the 
ribs ; indeed the parentage of most is legibly marked on the surface, 
or sufficiently to admit of an identification of their origin. 
Beechwood, originally from Persia, is an oval fruit and netted, 
which by cultivation developed into a bluntly oval fruit, and in good 
examples becomes almost round ; in fact I have had it quite round, 
which I particularly wish to note, as all Melons advance in proportion 
as they put on the round or spherical form. Oval Melons cease being 
pointed and become blunt-ended, or what we term bluntly oval ; and 
round Melons cease to have the ends flattened, and become as 
rotund at the ends as in the middle. This alone results from culti¬ 
vation and selection; indeed quite as much is effected by selection 
of the highest forms as by cross fertilisation, the latter being very 
tantalising when we come to in-and-in-breeding, everything depending 
upon the selections. 
Beechwood crossed with Victory of Bath (a form of Bromham 
Hall) resulted in Eastnor Castle, and this, when care is taken in 
selecting the seed from the bluntly oval and well-netted fruits, is an 
excellent variety, but it has a tendency to give pointed oval fruit, 
ribbed, sparsely or not netted, and the flesh of this form is coarse, 
soft, and poor in flavour. The latter is a reversion to some type 
clearly on the female side in form, whilst the loss of appearance is on 
the male side ; and reversions always are marked by vigour of con¬ 
stitution, being inherent in the female, though a languishing plant 
may be rejuvenated! by crossing with a vigorous variety. Beech- 
