318 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 22, 1866. 
The leaves are prominently veined on both sides; calyx campanu- 
late, the divisions rounded at the apex, pedicels very short or 
none, at the base of which are two or three narrow linear bracts, 
the large one being like an ordinary leaf, and about as broad. 
The flowers are an inch or so in diameter, purplish rose, with a 
white eye, generally only one on each scape, opening April and 
May. Exposed situations, rather dry in rich soil, with plenty 
of granite sand. Native of the Tyrol. Syn., Allionii, Auct. 
P. venusta, Host. —A hybrid between P. Auricula and P. car- 
niolica, Schott. It is one of the most handsome of the Primulas 
when well grown, its lai'ge clear rosy flowers showing well above 
the foliage. In the open border or on the rockery it seems to 
grow as freely as the common Alpine Auriculas, which it much 
resembles in habit. It forms stiff rosettes of blunt oval leaves, 
irregularly serrated or notched at the margins. Flowers large, 
from two to five on a scape, bright rose with white eye. It 
grows best, partly shaded from the mid-day sun, in rich soil, 
to which has been added limestone grit. It flowers from the 
middle or end of March to May. Syn., Freyeri, Hoppe. 
P. veeticillata, Forsk, is said not to be in cultivation. The 
plant cultivated under that name being P. Boveana, Done. 
P. viscosa, Vill. —Under this Mr. Baker has placed P. vil¬ 
losa, Wulf, and together with their many varieties they seem to 
give more trouble to botanists than all the other Primroses in 
cultivation. On the continent generally P. villosa is held to be 
a distinct species, and it is said that the true villosa is not found 
in the Central Alps, but only met with in Carinthia and the 
districts where crystalline limestone predominates. The flowers, 
it is also said, are twice the size of P. viscosa, deep purple rose, 
with a white ring round the centre, and having an orange 
yellow eye. Be all this as it may, in cur opinion P. villosa is 
not more distinct from P. viscosa than the latter is from lati¬ 
folia, pedemontana, decora, and a host of others generally 
included under viscosa, and which name being the oldest has 
preference over the other. Typical P. viscosa, as we know it, 
has shiny glutinous or viscous leaves, deeply serrated, as well as 
glandular at the margins. The flowers are numerous in a head, 
small, purplish rose-coloured, and having no distinct ring round 
the eye. This viscousness of the leaves wears off as we examine 
the forms in the direction of P. Simsii, ciliata, &c., varying also 
in size and shape until we come to the large leaved latifolia, 
with almost every valuation in purple of the flowers to the pure 
white of the handsome nivalis. They will thrive in almost any 
position on the rockery, and may do well in the ordinary border 
even, with the aid of a few stones round the stems. The finest 
of the type we have ever seen was grown on a small rockery 
behind a house facing north west, apparently quite unmindful 
of the soot, &c., which had collected largely on its viscous leaves. 
They flower April and May. Natives of the Alps, Pyrenees, &c. 
A few of the principal varieties are ciliata, Schrank; commutata, 
Schott; hirsuta, Alt.; latifolia, Lap.; pedemontana, Thom.; and 
nivalis, Ho, t. 
P. vulgaris, Huds. —The common Primrose, though possess¬ 
ing none of the gaudy colours of most of the South European 
species, has a beauty far preferable to theirs—sufficiently so, 
indeed, to merit a first place in our collections—the more so now, 
as it is fast disappearing from the spots where a few years ago 
it was so plentiful. Like many of our old garden or native 
flowers, its beauties have not been overlooked by the poets— 
Wordsworth’s “ Primrose by a river brim,” and again by Gold¬ 
smith in The Deserted Village”— 
“ Her modest looks the cottage might adorn, 
Sweet as the Primrose peep3 beneath the Thorn.” 
In cultivation the Primrose grows best in sheltered nooks or 
near bushes where it may be protected, and where it opens its 
flowers about the end of March. There are many coloured 
varieties in cultivation at the present time, one pure white, verv 
handsome, and var. Sibthorpii, which answers to the old var. 
rubra. It is increased from seed or division of the roots. 
The species, varieties, and hybrid Primulas enumerated in 
the pages of this Journal, commencing page 269, vol. ix. of the 
third series, comprise as nearly as possible all those in cultiva¬ 
tion at the present time. Unfortunately, the series is not so 
complete as it might be, owing partly to want of material, as 
well as the material at hand not always being thoroughly reli- 
able.. No two hybrids are said to be alike in all respects, and 
this is borne out more_ strikingly in the case of Primulas than 
in any other genus with which I am acquainted; and, like the 
Narcissi previous to the Conference two years ago, no two growers 
r sa ? ie f° rms under exactly the same names This state 
of affairs will no doubt be largely remedied at the Conference, 
& comparison of plants with reliable figures and drawings 
will help to show the advantages to be derived from meetings of 
this kind. Primulas, though not generally fastidious plants, 
require much attention to do them well, and in gardens where 
suitable, will need special provision in the shape of a rockery or 
prepared raised bed. It will be found more satisfactory to 
divide them into three groups—1, Semi-aquatic, those that grow 
best in damp shady places; for example, P. rosea, which in its 
native habitat is said to be found with its roots always some 
distance in water. 2, Those that do well in the ordinary mixed 
border; such as japonica, which does not only stand the winters, 
however severe, but seeds freely: cortusoides and others to be 
enumerated may also be grown in this way. 3, Failing a suitable 
rockery, those that can only be grown satisfactory in pots, such 
as Allionii, biflora, and many other small kinds. In the first or 
semi-aquatic group, rosea, which was described at page 275 of 
vol. x., together with its variety grandillora (sent out first, we 
believe, by Max Leichtlin, Baden-Baden), P. involucrata and 
Munroi, P. Parryi, &c. are amongst the best that may be treated 
in the dampest part of the bed; while on raised mounds, farinosa, 
scotica, Warei, sibirica, sikkimensis, and most of the other 
Himalayan Primroses may be grown. In sheltered and shady 
nooks, which need not be particularly damp, capitata, denticu- 
lata, Stuartii, obtusifolia, and others will do well. In the 
ordinary border the second group, comprising the Polyanthus 
and, indeed, all the Primulastrum section, together with the 
Alpine Auriculas Palinuri, Peyritshii, japonica, cortusoides and 
its varieties, many of the viscosa forms, and on little raised 
mounds integrifolia, marginata, &c., will be found to do well and 
flower almost as profusely as if grown on rockeries. Some of 
the varieties are far superior garden plants to the types. In 
the third group, as above stated, unless a special rockery be 
available, it will be much better to grow them in pots, plunging 
them in the open ground in sand, or, as is often adopted on the 
Continent, simply standing the pots on sand beds, attending 
well to watering, and only covering the plants with lights in 
case of heavy rains or frosts during the winter season. With 
the latter method of growing them in pots they are always 
under control, and individual plants may receive different treat¬ 
ment without disturbing the roots, which most of the smaller 
species quickly resent. Under this group may be included 
minima, biflora, Bernime, Allionii, tyrolensis, Florkeana ; while 
floribunda, Boveana, obconica, Ac., do much better with green¬ 
house treatment—indeed, we question much if it is possible to 
grow them successfully in the open air, as they are destroyed 
during winter, not so much from cold as from damp and fogs. 
A full list of the species and varieties will conclude our series. 
— D. 
THE LATE MR. TURNBULL, BOTHWELL CASTLE 
GARDENS. 
The death of Mr. Turnbull at the Garden House, Bothwell Castle, 
on the 18th inst., has removed a well known figure from the horticultural 
world of Scotland. Mr. Turnbull was born at Leger Wood, Berwick¬ 
shire, January 18th, 1801, and served his apprenticeship at the Haining, 
near Selkirk. In the year 1821 he removed to the Duke of Buccleuch’s 
gardens at Dalkeith, then under the able management of Mr. McDonald, 
who soon discovered that in young Andrew Turnbull he had an assistant 
of rare value. He soon promoted him to be foreman in the plant depart¬ 
ment, and in due course to be general foreman, and the writer of this 
obituary notice had it from Mr. McDonald’s own lips, that of the hundreds 
of such men that had passed under his charge, he never had a better than 
Andrew Turnbull. His expression was, “ Whatever you placed under 
Andrew’s charge was sure to be well attended to.” When Lord Archibald 
Douglas succeeded his father in the Douglas estates, he applied to Mr. 
McDonald for a gardener for Bothwell Castle, and he recommended 
young Turnbull, who entered on his duties in 1828, and no man ever more 
faithfully discharged them than he did, gaining the high esteem and 
friendship of six successive employers, inclu ling the present Earl of 
Home. All these noblemen and noble ladies, including the present Earl, 
were exceptionally kind to everyone employed on their estate, and Mr. 
Turnbull, while exacting justice for the employer, was an excellent 
exponent of the latter's kind feeling for the employed, thus retaining the 
respect and esteem of both. 
When Mr. Turnbull entered on his duties at Bothwell Castle it was 
then the leading garden in the 'west of Scotland : there were then few 
great gardens as we know them now. Bothwell Castle was, and is now 
more than ever, surrounded by mining and manufactures, and its noble 
proprietors in consequence did not add to the glass structures, as in other 
circumstances they would have done, the result being that in that respect 
it fell behind many gardens of the present day ; but for a well managed 
kitchen garden, for its collection of hardy herbaceous plants, and for its 
Heaths, it had few equals. It is generally known that Mr. Turnbull raised 
more tine seedling Heaths than any man, and that of these plants he was a 
most successful cultivator. 
Ween Mr. Turnbull began his career at Bothwell Castle he first directed 
his attention to improving the herbaceous Calceolaria with eminent success. 
His Lord Douglas, a splendid large purple flower now lost, has never had an 
