2608
P R I M U L A scotica.
Scottish Primrose.
P EN TA ND R IA Monogynia.
Gen. Char. Caps, of 1 cell opening with 10 teeth.
Cor. salver-shaped ; tube cylindrical; throat
open. Stigma globular.— Sm.
Spec. Char. Leaves obovato-lanceolate, mealy,
slightly toothed. Calyx swollen; limb of the
corolla rplane, w'ith glands at the mouth ; the
segments broadly ob cordate, close.
Syn. Primula scotica. Hook, in Ft. Lond. (N .S .)
t. 133. Sm. Engl. Ft. v. 1. 272. (excl. the syn.
of Ft. Dan. P. stricta.)
T h i s rarity seems to occupy the place of Primula fari-
nosa, in the extreme northern part of the mainland of Scotland
and in the Orkney Islands, where alone it has yet been
found. It is unquestionably the plant alluded to under the
name of P.farinosa, by Lightfoot, as growing between Big-
house and Armidale, Sutherland: and it is the “ dwarf
variety ” of that plant mentioned in Flora Scotica as being
found by Messrs. Borrer and Hooker in Orkney. I at first
mistook it for a variety of P.farinosa : nor was it till I received
beautiful specimens from Mr. Gibb of Inverness, gathered
near Thurso, and till I saw it cultivated extensively
and for a succession of years, that I was satisfied it was a distinct
species. The two are, however, decidedly and permanently
distinct. In our present plant the leaves are
shorter, broader, less serrated or toothed; the calyx is
strikingly different, being shorter and vastly more swollen ;
and the corollas are not only remarkably unlike in colour,
(of a deep purple,) but in the breadth of the segments and
their approximation; and the mouth of the corolla too is