Polyanthus

THE POLYANTHUS, Primula elatio

WHAT is the difference between a primrose and a polyanthus? There is a great difference apparently, for one is catalogued as Primula vulgaris, and the other as Primula elatior. The ready answer is, that a primrose has one flower on a stalk, but a polyanthus has many. It happens, however, that primroses are produced in clusters, as polyanthuses are, but they appear to be produced singly, because the stem that carries the cluster is very short, and the secondary stem, or peduncle that carries the flower, is very long. Now and then a common primrose determines to explain the case to the young botanist, and then we see a stout stem bearing on its summit a cluster of primroses. These are called polyanthus primroses, and, generally speaking, they are scarcely so pretty as the (apparently) single stalked common primroses. But how comes all this colour into the polyanthus, if it is but a primrose, seeing that a true primrose is always of a pale yellow colour? But, then, a true primrose is not necessarily of a pale yellow colour, for we have them of all colours, from pure white to deep yellow, and from pale rose and lavender to crimson and purple-blue. On one occasion I sat down in the park at Bicton to gossip with my old friend the late Mr. James Barnes, and the knoll of wild herbage we selected for our symposium was dotted with primroses of at least a dozen colours, some being brown or slaty, but others lively rose, full purple, red, and the most delicate lilac. Therefore, as to the growth and the colouring, it will not be difficult for the observant gardener to believe that the primrose and the polyanthus are but forms of the same species, owning a common origin in the type named by Linnaeus Primula veris.

There are two distinct classes of polyanthuses. The bedding and border kinds have flowers characterised by gay colours; the florists' or exhibition polyanthuses have dark maroon or black grounds, and a rich gold lacing. On the roundness, smoothness, velvety texture, and sharpness of the lacing depends the relative merit of the show varieties, which are valued highly by the few florists who understand and appreciate them.