YASIN J. NASIR

A plant up to 15 cm tall, efarinose. Leaves petiolate. Lamina 10-35 x 10-20 mm, oblong to ovate-oblong, entire or slightly crenate; scape barely exceeding the foliage, up to 10 cm long, (2-) 3-5(-10) flowered. Flowers purple, heteromorphic. Bracts 8-10 mm long, lanceolate or narrowly so. Pedicel up to 35 mm long. Calyx 8-9 mm long, more or less tubular campanulate, c. 2/3rd-partite into lanceo¬late lobes. Corolla lobes obcordate, bibbed. Capsule more or less included in the calyx, subglobose, membranous, splitting irregularly. Seeds less than 1 mm long, angled, ovoid in outline, vesiculose.

Fl. Per.: June-July.

Holotype: Lachen, 12-14,000', J. D. Hooker s.n. in 1848-49 (K!).

Distribution: Sikkim, Nepal, Kashmir.

The description is based on plant material from Nepal. Apparently very rare in Kashmir and to my knowledge collected only once from mt. Apharwat (above Gulmarg) at 4300 m by T.A. Rao (in Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind. 18(2):6.1961). The species is related to Primula chionota var. violacea W.W. Smith, which however has an annulate corolla and leaves which are incised: