1874. ] 
HARDY PRIMROSES. 
33 
My opinion of this vegetable has already been published in this journal, 
and I then thought no further remarks would be necessary ; neither would 
there have been, had not the Leicester Bed been rechristened and sent 
out as a new variety. In this matter there cannot possibly be any mistake. 
During 1872 I was favoured by Messrs. Harrison and Son, of Leicester, with 
a sample of seed for trial; this I grew in company with many more kinds, 
and found the quality of first-rate excellence, the best by a long distance I had 
ever grown. During 1873 a new competitor, under the name of Major Clarke’s 
Solid Bed made its appearance, and this I have grown side by side with the 
Leicester Bed, and cannot detect the least difference between them, the habit 
and quality being exactly the same. In this matter, I require no support; still, 
competent judges have again and again expressed the same opinion. No doubt 
Celery, like other vegetables, may be improved or injured by certain systems of 
cultivation, yet we cannot altogether, under the most careless methods, subdue 
sterling merit. What has been the experience of your readers generally in 
respect to these two varieties?— Alexander Cramb, Tortworth. 
This variety was, it appears, grown at Chiswick so long ago as 18G6-7, 
and was reported on in the Gardeners^ Chronicle^ 1871, p. 40, as being of the 
finest quality, the statement that it was a hybrid of Major Clarke’s being, how¬ 
ever, incorrect, since the variety was not raised by, but given to him, and by him 
brought into notice. Mr. Barron informs us that he once received the same 
variety of Celery from Mr. Welch, who, at the time, was gardener to the Arch¬ 
bishop of Armagh, at Armagh Palace. Whatever its name or origin, there is 
no doubt it is one of the best Celeries grown.— Ed. 
HARDY PRIMROSES. 
HEBE are few more interesting hardy subjects than Primroses—seedling 
Primroses in the batch more particularly, the form, colour, and variety 
PUSu they exhibit being quite remarkable. It is, however, astonishing how 
little the gardening public, till very recently, understood the simple 
distinctions between the ordinary type of Primroses, and such permanent sports as 
the Polyanthus. So little, indeed, was known, that not long since it was stated 
publicly that a Primrose sporting from the Acaulis or single-scape form, at once 
became a true Polyanthus in the proper acceptation of the term. I believe I 
was the means of demolishing this unwarrantable conclusion. Owing to a 
challenge I received from a well-informed gardener who visited me, I last spring 
undertook to exhibit half-a-dozen Primroses distinct (keeping well within the 
wording of the schedule of the Boyal Horticultural Society), and I maintained 
that I would carry off a prize with them as Primroses proper, although they each 
had polyanth or umbellate flower-spikes. My friend laughingly told me that the 
judges would never give to Polyanthuses a prize offered for Primroses. However, I 
gained the prize ; and that the judges had given a proper decision was conflrnied 
by our leading newspaper, the Gardeners' Chronicle. Since then many chapters 
have been written in most of the garden publications, and amongst them two 
excellent illustrated articles in the Journal of Horticulture. 
