THE 
FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
PRIMULA SINENSIS PURPUREA PUNCTATA. 
[Plate 505.] 
RE AT strides have been made of late 
years in the improvement of the 
Chinese Primrose, Primula sinensis , 
and when one now happens to meet with the 
typical form, as originally introduced, one 
scarcely recognises it as the same plant, its nar¬ 
row, plain-edged, notched segments looking poor 
and tame beside the richly-frilled forms now 
generally cultivated, to say nothing of the 
immense improvement in respect to colour 
which has been effected by careful seed¬ 
ing, aided by high cultivation. 
The original P. sinensis had the leaves 
palmatifidly lobed, as in the new variety we 
now figure ; but some twenty or five-and-twenty 
years since a seedling sport was raised, with 
the outline of the leaves obovate-oblong, as in 
the common primrose, but deeply lobed at the 
edge, so as to resemble a fern frond ; hence 
this race, now almost as varied as the original, 
was called the Fern-leaved. In early days, too, 
the leaf-stalk indicated the colour of the flower, 
the whites having pallid-green stalks, and the 
purples red stalks ; but this no longer holds 
good, Waltham White, for example, one of the 
best of the whites, having the leaf-stalks of the 
deepest tint of red. 
In the flowers, the first changes were from 
single to double, and from plain-edged to 
frilled, or fimbriated, as it was commonly 
called. Then, by selecting the best for seeding, 
we had the whites increased in fulness and 
substance, until in Princess Louise these pro¬ 
perties reached the highest standard, and the 
rosy-coloured forms became intensified into the 
larger rich rosy-purple hues which characterise 
all the carefully-selected strains of the present 
day, and which are claimed as specialities by 
various growers. About a dozen years ago we 
received in this country from Germany the 
variety called kermesina, which was of a de¬ 
cidedly different hue, approaching a salmon- 
red, and it is no doubt the admixture with this 
No. 25. IMPERIAL SERIES. 
which has given us the crimson-tinted strains 
now in cultivation. Other variations, some¬ 
times more curious than beautiful, have from 
time to time made their appearance on the 
Continent; but some two or three years since Mr. 
Barron obtained from MM. Vilmorin-Andrieux 
et Cie., of Paris, seeds of a very high-coloured 
race, amongst which were flowers having the 
edges dotted with white. This, which M. 
Vilmorin call P. sinensis purpurea punctata , 
was the original of the variety represented in 
our plate, the portrait of which was taken from 
one of the plants grown at Chiswick last year. 
From the same strain Mr. Barron has selected 
Chiswick Red and rubro-violacea, two of the 
brightest varieties yet obtained, and both Cer¬ 
tificated at South Kensington as real advances 
on others previously in cultivation, the first 
having more of the crimson tint, the latter of the 
violet tint flushing the reddish-crimson of the 
flower, and both having well-marked yellow 
eyes. Mr. Barron has also subsequently sent 
us flowers of a particularly beautiful and dis¬ 
tinct form, of a bright magenta-purple, dotted 
with white, and with a very large bronze eye 
extended half-way across the face of the 
flower ; the edge is undulated, as well as neatly 
fringed with crenate toothing, and the five 
original lobes are so deeply cut in, fully £ in., 
that the several overlapping lobelets of the 
corolla appear to constitute an almost con¬ 
tinuous double layer throughout. This, which 
has flowers of full size, is one of the handsomest 
forms we have seen. 
A glance at the accompanying plate will 
show the principal features which mark this 
punctate Primula to be the large solid flowers, 
brilliant crimson-colour, the white dotted 
margin, and large yellow eye. The truss is 
bold and close, and the habit stout and 
vigorous, so that altogether this new form will 
take high rank as a decorative plant. 
Mr. Douglas has judiciously remarked in a 
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