Primula

PRIMULA, OR CHINA PRIMROS

FAMILIARITY does not always breed contempt, and the exceptions to the rule may supply a problem for the philosophers. Perhaps familiarity never breeds contempt, for what we attribute to "familiarity" may be really attributable to the nearer knowledge of men and things that familiarity favours. We set up idols and worship them. When we discover that they are made of wood, we dethrone them. We admire a thing because it is new, and discard it when we learn that it is worthless; but a really good thing retains our respect when the novelty has passed away, and thus it is that we never feel contempt for such familiar, cheap, and simple things as bread and butter, scarlet runners, and Chinese primroses.

This plant came to our hands in the year 1820, and for some time thereafter was but poorly grown, and had no such beauty as it has now. Our figure represents it as it usually appeared in the early days of its advance in the way of improvement. Within the past ten years the progress of improvement has been really wonderful, for we have great variety of leafage, the leaves being in many cases elegantly lobed, and constituting a race called "fernleaved primulas;" while the flowers are single and double, smooth and fringed, and of all colours, from pure white to fiery red, approaching pure scarlet.