Plate 102. 
DOUBLE-FLOWERED CHINESE PRIMROSE. 
Primula preenitens ffimbriata fiore pleno ), vars. 
There is hardly any flower more generally useful for the 
early spring decoration of greenhouses, and for indoor purposes 
generally, than the Chinese Primrose; seeding freely, easy of 
cultivation, and blooming for a lengthened period, resisting at 
the same time those influences of dust and close confinement 
so prejudicial to many plants, it possesses qualifications which 
make it so general a favourite that any improvement in its 
general aspect will be hailed with pleasure by all lovers of 
plants, and such improvement we believe the subjects of our 
present plate present. 
In our last volume we figured some varieties which had been 
introduced by various growers, amongst them a semidouble 
one, exhibited by Mr. Charles Turner, of Slough ; since then 
two semidouble ones, which were said to come true from seed, 
and called nivea plena and rubella plena , have been introduced 
by Mr. William Bull, of Chelsea, from the Continent ; but 
these are all excelled, in our opinion, by the very desirable 
varieties figured in our plate, which were exhibited by Messrs. 
F. and A. Smith, the eminent nurserymen of Dulwich, and 
were greatly admired at the Exhibition of the Boyal Horticul¬ 
tural Society in April last, when the red-flowered variety re¬ 
ceived a first-class certificate from the Floral Committee. In 
delicata we have a delicate flesh-coloured flower (white on first 
opening), and very double, the petals being deeply fringed and 
of large size; while in rubra grandifiora we have a flower, 
equally good in character, but of a deep-red colour: unlike the 
old double Chinese Primrose, which was always difficult to 
keep (owing to its delicacy of constitution), these varieties are 
robust, and come true from seed, Messrs. Smith having shown 
several seedling plants exactly alike to confirm their statement. 
