5 38 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
April 24, 1886. 
IMPROVEMENT OP THE GENUS 
PRIMULA.* 
I only take up this question at the direct request of 
my brother-florist, Mr. Samuel Barlow, of Stakehill. 
The subject could not have been in better hands than 
his, nor associated with a name more known and 
honoured among florists. There is, however, this one 
thing, to temper my regret that I must take his place, 
and to add value to my paper, that the question I am 
to introduce is a very old and interesting one between 
Mr. Barlow and myself. Through all the years of our 
intimate friendship have we stood together over the 
Auricula in bloom, and taken careful thought as to the 
yet richer development of this highly cultured flower, 
a favourite with us both from bo 3 ’hood. 
Mr. Shirley Hibberd in his introductory paper, his¬ 
torical and descriptive (see p. 534), will have given some 
definite idea of what the florists’ Auricula is ; so that I 
shall not here be using technical terms altogether strange 
to those not conversant with the properties of the flower, 
some of which had not been acquired in the dawn of its 
culture some 300 years ago, nor are even dimly visible 
in the simplicity of its supposed wild ancestry. If any 
of the points for improvement should seem minute— 
perhaps fanciful—I can only say that the highest 
qualities have, as a rule, been gained only by such 
gentle gradients and slight curves as these. It is often 
some delicate touch, small in itself, but great in its 
effect, that raises a flower at once above the inferior or 
commonplace. To the accustomed eye the Auricula has 
an intense individuality, and very slight variations of 
feature alter an expression, and enhance or detract from 
a type of beauty. 
In a breadth of its brilliant bloom there is the effect 
as of many eyes turned steadfastly upon their admirers; 
and there are faces in the flowery crowd on which one 
may read many expressions of a life and character 
super-floral. Like as in a bed of Pansies there are 
many comical casts of countenance expressive of 
astonishment, anxious inquiry, perplexity, and brown 
study ; so here, in an exhibition of the Auricula, as 
representative of its beauty as can possibly be made, 
the flowers look all gentleness, candour, honesty, 
simplicity, and refinement. 
Glaring faults that impart a low and evil look are 
all absent here ; and hence I am not able to submit to 
you how impudent and barefaced is the “pin-eyed” 
flower, wherein the stigma, protruding from the hollow 
throat, is like a tongue thrust out. Neither, how loose 
and vacant is the expression of the inordinately large 
tube ; and how cunning and cold that of one too small. 
Nor how lack of breadth in the eye or “paste” of the 
flower is like that in other eyes which cannot look you 
in the face ; and how narrow ground colours betoken 
indecision and want of thoroughness. “Edges’’have 
their own expressions, too ; something like meanness 
when too narrow, and akin to bounce in over-breadth ; 
for excess of edge is often concurrent with excess of size, 
and coarseness, almost inseparable from immensity in 
the Auricula, is one of its gravest faults. 
Had it been practicable, a representative collection 
of failures in desired qualities would have formed a 
very clear illustration of mistakes. Yet I w’ould not 
say it would be convincing; for invariably the 
uninitiated friend who comes to tell you which of all 
you have he likes the best, settles his admiration upon 
something that has set at naught all proper principles, 
and he does violence to your feelings by approving of 
it. But the greatest ordeal of praise I ever had was 
the remark, transparently innocent, of an old country 
parishioner, “ They almost come up to artificials, sir !” 
The question in what direction efforts should be 
made for improving the florist flowers of the genus 
Primula resolve itself, descriptively into the statement 
of the shortcomings more or less prominent and ob¬ 
stinate ; prospectively, into what the possibilities are 
of which the hopeful shadows in faint shape are cast 
before ; and practically, in what system of experiments 
we should seek to overcome the faults, and win into 
reality the promise of fresh beauties that a flower, in¬ 
exhaustible in its powers of variation, naturally affords 
us. 
As an experimentalist I will adhere to the practical; 
use bare description as little as I may, and bring 
young hopes downstairs from the nursery realms of 
imagination as considerately as I can. 
* “ In what directions should efforts be made with the View of 
Improving the Forists' Flowers belonging to the Genus Primula! ” 
By the Rev. F. D. Horner, Lowfields, Burton-in-Lonsdale. 
Read at the Primula Conference. 
Properties of Auriculas. 
Form.— The first property to be worked for in the 
Auricula is, I submit, the perfection of that form upon 
which the colour-attributes of the flower will be the 
most effectively displayed. Colour can always be 
worked up to, and the florist may tarry patiently for 
this until he has the form of grace whereon to call it 
into play. I always choose as the maternal parent of 
Auricula seed the best flowers I have in breadth, cir¬ 
cularity, flatness, substance, and smoothness of petal ; 
while for male parentage I do not depart further than 
must be from form. Petals cannot be too broad, so 
long as they will expand equally and kindly. If they 
do not meet through narrowness or roughness, the 
beautiful design of the colour-zones is interrupted by 
vacant spaces signifying nothing. 
The edged classes and the seifs have each their own 
type of error in respect of form. In the “edges” it 
is generalty a pointedness of petal; in the seifs a 
central notch or heart-shaped depression. In the 
edged flowers the fault has long been noticed and 
regretted, and has now been brilliantly overcome 
especially from the appearing of Lancashire’s Lanca¬ 
shire Hero in 1846 onwards ; but among the seifs until 
recent times there was hardly an exception to the rule 
of notch. The identical petal of the self seemed 
silently allowed to pass as the typical petal of the class. 
Selfs. —For improvement of the self Auricula, my 
experience convinces me that the best results are to be 
obtained through entirely self parentage. I would not 
say that a correct self flower has never come from edged 
parents for Mr. Campbell believed that his brown sell 
Pizarro, the best flower in the class at the time, was 
raised from a green-edged parent, and Mr. Simmonite 
that a good blue self of his was obtained from a white- 
edged seedling. 
Certainty, however, my own best seifs have sprung 
from purely self parents, and latterly from a self 
descent comparatively ancestral. Selfs have generally 
a shorter duration of bloom than the edged flowers 
which possess greater stoutness of petal, and in which 
the green, whether pure or mealed, is a colour of 
greater and more leaf-like vitality. 
It might be theoretical to suppose that if seifs were 
crossed with these, a greater substance of petal would 
be transmitted. In practice, however, it is found 
that all seed from purely edged parents produces a 
majority of self varieties, and vast numbers of these are 
notched, and frilled, and flimsy flowers. I have 
never had wilder flights of seedling seifs than from 
that grand grey-edge, George Lightbody. It would 
almost seem that an “edge” did not know what a 
good self ought to be. 
I think that for seifs we should work patiently 
among themselves, advancing in substance as we cer¬ 
tainty are sure if slow degrees, and not weakening 
the newly acquired and most supreme point of the 
“rose-leaved ” or perfectly rounded petal 
Another point to aim at in the development of the 
self is the addition of some that would be constitu- 
tionalty later in blooming than most of those we have. 
Campbell’s Duke of Argyll (rich crimson, but deeply 
notched), might transmit this habit, and be overruled 
in this fault. 
The Auricula bloom in a collection loses much of its 
power and beauty when the quiet yet emphatic seifs 
are gone. It is like the beginning of the end, as when 
in the fading summer the swallows take their flight. 
Edged Flowers.— With reference to improvement in 
form in the green, grey, and white edges, I would 
remark that in these, good form bey’ond its intrinsic 
value, has an influence inductive of other good 
properties. Bounded petals are associated with 
roundness of the white-mealed circle termed the 
“paste ; ” while with the pointed petal the paste is 
often, as by a kind of sympathy, drawn into corre¬ 
sponding irregularities, which only intensify the serious 
fault of an angular appearance. 
For form’s sake, naturally, such flowers as have the 
roundest, broadest petals will be selected ; and such a 
variety as George Lightbody, among those we have 
known and distributed at present, will serve as a type. 
If good form in both parents should justify it, m 3 T 
conclusions are that edged flowers should be crossed 
with their class fellows ; for one line of improvement 
in the Auricula certainty lies in doing all we can to 
intensify and magnify the class distinctions, gaining 
green edges as deeply green as possible, and white 
edges as densely mealed. The “undecided edge,” too 
green for grey, and too grey for pure green, is not 
desirable. Still the Auricula is so very sportive, that 
some decisive edges will be obtained from parents dis¬ 
similar in class ; and the experiment is justified, of 
course, if there be no alternative, and if some marked 
improvement in form may be hoped for from it. 
Petals. —Connected with form, in addition to the 
roundness and level disposition of the petals, may be 
mentioned their number. This is variable, even in 
different flowers on the same plant. Five is probably 
the normal number, for beyond this the Auricula will 
take a playful liberty with the proprieties of its 
Linnoean order, Pentandria, always producing just as 
many stamens as there may be petals ; and if one be 
of inordinate breadth it is accounted as two, and 
decorated accordingly with two stamens. This may be 
a botanical misdemeanour, but is not an offence under 
florist bye-laws. The same is noticeable also in the 
florist Tulip, which is required to have petals neither 
less nor more than six, but is occasionally misformed 
with four or five, and seven or eight, when there is 
always one attendant anther for each. In the Auricula 
five or six petals are sufficient for a broad round flower, 
and more than eight begin to look narrow and laboured. 
Colour. —When we turn from improvement in form 
to views of improvement in colours, both in richness 
and variety, a very wide field of development lies 
before the florist. Possibilities peep out but half con¬ 
cealed or only in the rough, revealing themselves in 
the rarer combinations of colours that a few seedlings 
crudely show ; and these beckonings need but to be 
followed to obtain in time some new and beautiful 
combinations. 
The Auricula is a most richly endowed flower, 
possessing alread 3 r , singly or combined, all colours 
of the rainbow, violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, 
orange, and red ; and further still and rarer, that 
negation of all colours, black. In edges we do not 
look for a gift of other than the greeD, gre 3 T , and 
white, now so well known and fixed—while the 
colours of the paste and tube are constant and 
common to all. There remains but one more colour 
zone upon the flower, to give variety and play, and 
that is the ring or belt of velvety surface known as 
the “ground” or “bod 3 7 ” colour. 
Disposed between the green or powdered edge and 
the white mealed “paste,” it is a solid band along 
its inner edge ; while on the outer it flashes in lively 
pencillings, bold and blunt in some varieties, sharp 
and delicate in others, towards, but not dashing 
through to the petal edge. It is this lively charac¬ 
teristic of the body colour that entirety takes away 
any tameness or monoton 3 T , hardness or fixity that a 
series of strict concentric circles might be supposed to 
have. The body colour should most certainty have a 
good solid foundation before it begins to feather off, 
because a few slight pencillings only have a very 
feeble and scratchy effect, while a bold and rugged 
style of its outer edge is massive and handsome 
in the extreme. But by an expressionless ring of 
black, dreary as a black hatband round a white 
hat, I would not advocate taming the Auricula 
down to the miniature similitude of an archery 
target. Such a picture of utter and unbending 
primness (for which the botanical equivalent is not 
Primula), as a series of severe circles may indeed 
have been in old time perpetrated in hard diagram ; 
but this was only as the bare skeleton which Nature 
in real life shall clothe with all fulness, softness, and 
grace and vivacity. 
The body colour is the “iris” of the flower’s eye, 
and black is at present the most settled colour. A 
good black is very safe and true, lasting well upon 
the flower, a most important point ; and hence it has 
been a favourite colour, espeeialty with florists in the 
North, and the more encouraged, pursued, and 
developed. Indeed other body colours were re¬ 
garded with marked disfavour by old Lancashire 
florists, though if other colours had been worked up to 
the truth and steadfastness of the black, there is 
nothing but local fancy or prejudice to make them 
less valuable and less beautiful. Little encouraged 
in such variety, the Auricula has shown a capability, 
if onty initial yet, of giving both blue and crimson as 
the ground colour in edged flowers. These will of 
course require cultivating up to intensity and steadi¬ 
ness, and I submit this as a very interesting new path 
of improvement. 
( To be continued). 
