Plate 149. 
FERN-LEAVED CHINESE PRIMROSE. 
The merit of introducing this new variety of this well-known 
flower is due to Messrs. E. G. Henderson and Son, of the Wel¬ 
lington Road Nursery, who two years ago brought it before the 
Floral Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society; and hav¬ 
ing grown it for the last two seasons, and proved its constancy, 
it has again been favourably noticed by the Committee as a 
plant likely to be a valuable acquisition to our early spring¬ 
flowering plants. 
We have in former volumes given figures of different varie¬ 
ties of Primula remarkable for their flowers, but in this the 
foliage is the most noticeable portion of the plant, the flowers 
differing little from those of a good strain of the ordinary- 
fringed kind; but the leaves of this, which has been named 
Filicifolia , especially commend it, being remarkable for the 
beauty of their appearance. It has also the valuable property 
of being reproduced from seed, so that they may be propagated 
in the ordinary way that the Chinese Primroses are. 46 These 
Chinese Primroses,” we quote from Henderson’s 4 Illustrated 
Bouquet,’ 44 are readily distinguished by more erect and robust 
habit of growth. The lower series of the pinnatifid leaves alone 
assume a horizontal position, whilst the remainder rise from six 
to eight inches in height, on long, rich crimson footstalks, their 
terminal leaf-blades being from six to eight inches in length, 
and a couple of inches or more in width. These leaves are 
narrowest at the base, and widen upwards* They are oblong 
in form, and somewhat concave near the base; otherwise evenly 
expanded, and being notched with numerous oblong lobes, 
which are separated midway to the centre-rib, and toothed at 
the edge, they acquire a somewhat fan-like appearance, whilst 
