May 6, 1886. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
359 
manure is an excellent cooling stimulant for applying bi-weekly to this 
species when in flower. P. obconica will not bear overpotting, therefore 
do not put the plants in a larger size than 5-inch pots. 
Old plants are easily rejuvenated by dividing them at any time during 
the spring and summer and'growing on as advised for those grown from 
seed. The plants grown from seed will, if the foregoing simple require¬ 
ments have been attended to, commence to flower by the middle of Sep¬ 
tember, and continue to do so, more or less, all the year round, especially 
in a cool, moist, and shady posi ion. This species is reputed by some to 
be hardy enough for growing nut of doors, but having tried it for two 
seasons under similar conditions to P. cortusoides, which thrives well with 
us out of doors, we cannot report favourably of its adaptability for this 
purpose. Like several other so-called hardy Primulas, its proper position 
is under glass, and when grown under the conditions suggested in the 
foregoing notes it will prove one of the most beautiful and interesting of 
the whole family. 
P, obconica is also known under another name—viz., poeuliformis, 
a bad bargain, but the Company fared better still when Sir Hans Sloane- 
made the gmund over to them in perpetuity, on condition that they 
obtained fifty new plants yearly, until the number of 2000 was reached. 
As he behaved generously to them in other things, as, for example, con¬ 
tributing towards the expense of their buildings, he well deserved the 
memorial of a statue in marble, which still remains, though none the 
better for the action of so many years’ moisture and smoke. Any respect¬ 
able person can obtain from the Apothecaries Company a ticket to visit 
these Gardens. I regret that so few horticulturists of our time have been 
within their walls. Perhaps they judge that not much is to be learnt here,, 
yet the place has its historic interest. It is one of the oldest, if not the 
oldest garden of London. In it were erected some of the first greenhouses 
devoted to forcing plants or nurturing exotics. At the beginning, species 
cultivated in the open must have grown nearly as well as they would 
mde3 away from London, so pure was the Chelsea atmosphere then. 
Many trees and shrubs formerly admired and studied have now disappeared, 
decaying from old age or other causes. A long list of famous men. 
Fig. 66. — Primula obconica (P. poculiformis). 
and as such is figured and described by Sir Joseph Hooker in the 
“Botanical Magazine.’’—T. W. Sanders. 
[Our illustration was prepared from a plant in the collection from the 
Edinburgh Botanic Gar ien-, shown at the Primula Conference, South 
Kensington, on April 20th.] 
LONDON’S LESSER OPEN SPACES—THEIR TREES AND 
PLANTS.—No. 8. 
Time was when we could look from the green fields of Chelsea to the 
broader fields and hills of Battersea opposite. Battersea has, indeed, 
yielded most of its market gardens to the ruthless builder, but a green 
portion of Battersea is preserved intact within its park, where, under 
judicious treatment, and by careful adaptation of place, so many exotics 
flourish in the uncertain cltme of London. The Chelsea meads, where 
cows grazed, people drank tea, and botanists hunted for specimens, have 
gone; houses cover the ground mostly, though the Apothecaries’ Garden 
does yet keep ODen what was once a field, and in the seventeenth century 
liable to be overflowed during some tides. When the Apothecaries got 
this piece of land in 1673, at a rent of £5 per annum, they did not make 
gardeners or botanists, might be given, whose feet have oft trodden this 
Bmall area, for I suppose it is only three acres. Amongst these memory 
recalls, beside Sir Hans, the genial Evelyn, Sir Joseph Banks, Petiver, 
Miller, Forsyth, Fraser, AndersoD, Fortune, and Curtis. The esteemed 
Curator at present is Mr. Thos. Moore, F.L.S. He has held the office since 
the summer of 1848, and I trust he may be spared to reach his jubilee. 
Most visitors enter these gardens by a gate in a side lane from Queen’s 
Road that once led down to an old tavern, “The Swan.” The effect of 
the first view, I think, is to give ns the idea that the extent is greater 
than is the fact. The principal houses lie on the right, also the offices, 
the herbaceous ground to the left, a few trees are scattered over the 
centre, but there are no shrubberies. A sloping bank on the east side is 
devoted to Ferns, but at the time of my visit this did not appear to 
advantage. In a corner close to this stands yet the Oriental Plane of 
large dimensions. It is, however, dead, having suffered like some others- 
here, during the making of the embankment. Conspicuous near the 
river is the sole surviving Cedar, which, with its companion that died off 
some years ago, were familiar landmarks to those passing along the 
Thames, and which had the honour to figure as frontispiece, with a bit of 
the Gardens, to a curious and scarce book about physicians, entitled 
“ The Gold-headed Caue.” Thin Cedar was planted in 1683, being then 
