1880 . ] 
HARDY PRIMULAS.—NATIONAL AURICULA SHOW. 
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4 O 
HARDY PRIMULAS. 
[Plate 514.] 
revival of the exhibitions of the Auri- 
la {Primula Auricula of the botanists), 
d the introduction within the past few 
years of several extremely handsome Indian spe¬ 
cies of the same genus, together with the impulse 
which the spread of spring gardening has 
given to the improvement of the rme typified 
by Primula vulgaris , have conspired to render 
the various forms of Hardy Primulas extremely 
popular. This result is by no means to be 
wondered at, when we consider the variety of 
character, the chaste beauty of form, and the 
soft and delicate hues of colour which are to 
be found, often associated in one species, in the 
extensive and wide-varying family of the 
Primroses, amongst which representatives from 
the Alps and the Himalayas occur in the three 
species which are associated in the accompany¬ 
ing plate. 
The Primula spectabilis of Trattinick 
(Fig. 1) is a rare Alpine species, sent us a year 
or two since by Messrs. Backhouse, of York, by 
whom it was extensively imported. It is from 
the Eastern Alps, where it grows in gravelly soil, 
and flowers in July and August. It is a stoutish- 
growing plant, almost as large as an Auricula, 
with a rosette of thick fleshy elliptic-lanceo¬ 
late leaves, having an entire cartilaginous 
border, and from amongst which spring up the 
heads of some half-dozen large rich deep 
rosy-purple flowers. The P. Polliniana, of 
Keichenbach, is one of its synonyms. There is 
no doubt that this is one of the finest of the 
Alpine Primroses, and one in every way adapted 
for pot cultivation. 
The Primula villosa of Jacquin (Fig. 2) 
is an old and well-known plant, but not the 
less beautiful or desirable on that account. It 
has hairy often viscous leaves, which are obovate 
in form, dentate-serrate from the middle up¬ 
wards, and ciliate with glanduliferous hairs. 
The flowers are of a bright rosy-purple, some¬ 
times with, sometimes without, a white eye, 
and are of an exceedingly bright and cheerful 
character. P. viscosa and P. hirsuta are some 
of its forms. The plant is a native of high 
granite rocks in the Southern Alps and the 
Pyrenees, where it is found blooming in May 
and June. It is the white-flowered variety 
of this plant, called nivea , which one often 
sees cultivated under the erroneous name of 
P. nivalis , a name which belongs to quite 
another plant. Both forms are of compact dwarf 
habit, very free-blooming; and one scarcely 
knows which most to admire—the bright look¬ 
ing magenta hue of the type, or the pure white 
fragrant flower-masses of the variety, the latter 
being extremely fascinating. With us these 
plants flower during the month of April. 
The Primula rosea of Boyle (Fig. 3) has 
been introduced within the last year or two. 
We first saw it at Chiswick, where it flowered 
beautifully last year under the care of Mr. 
Barron, and soon became popular amongst the 
growers of these plants. Indeed, Dr. Hooker 
says of it that u it would be difficult to single 
out any early-flowering hardy plant, except 
perhaps the blue Gentian of the Alps, which 
forms a more striking object of its kind.” It 
is a native of the Western Himalayas, Kash¬ 
mir being its head-quarters, and is a most 
charming acquisition, whether by reason of its 
distinct colour or its neat habit. Like most of the 
other species, it forms a small tuft of leaves, 
which are obovate-lanceolate and crenulate, and 
a robust scape, bearing several showy rose- 
coloured flowers, which have cuneate-obcordate 
segments and a naked throat. The appressed 
erect involucral bracts are thick, lanceolate- 
acuminate, produced downwards into an oblong 
obtuse auricle. The flowers are half an inch or 
more in diameter, sometimes as many as ten in 
a cluster, bright rose-carmine when they first 
open, and gradually becoming paler. 
There is probably no genus of hardy plants 
which presents so many gems to the choice of 
the lover of flowers—many of them, moreover, 
blossoming in spring, when flowers are doubly 
welcome—than that which finds a popular 
representative in our simple native Primrose. 
—T. Moore. 
NATIONAL AURICULA SHOW. 
SOUTHERN SECTION. * 
S HE annual show of the Southern Branch 
of the National Auricula Society took 
place at South Kensington on April 
20th, and was eminently successful. This 
branch of the Society has now been established 
for four years, and its existence has been one 
of steady progress, since it has witnessed a gain 
of more members and more exhibitors each 
