Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/762

Rh 738 P R I P R I the ilition j assumption by the ordinarily green calyx of a petaloid con- ion ; when this is complete we have the Condition called &quot; hose in hose &quot; by the gardeners. This may, however, arise from actual duplication of the corolla within the calyx. The Chinese Primrose, now so much cultivated in gardens, is derived from P. pricnitens. The Japanese Primrose is nearly or quite hardy, and is the stateliest of the genus ; its flowers of varied colours are placed tier above tier, like the branches of a fir tree. P. cortusoides is another Japanese species of which many forms are now cultivated. P. simcnsis, with mealy leaves and yellow flowers, is the Abyssinian Primrose of gardens. The Himalayas are rich in species of primrose, often very difficult of determination or limitation, certain forms being peculiar to particular valleys. Of these P. denticulata, Stuartii, sikkim- mcnsis, nivalis, may be mentioned as frequently cultivated, as well as the lovely rose-coloured species P. rosea. PRIXCE. &quot; Prince &quot; and &quot; princess &quot; are names or de scriptions implying either political authority or social rank in the persons to whom they relate or are accorded. We have in &quot; prince &quot; the English and French form of the Latin princeps, which with more or less modification has been adopted into nearly every language of modern Europe, and of which the original and common use was to indicate priority or pre-eminence of any sort. In an honorary sense it was, to begin with, applied by the Romans to the first or most distinguished members of the senate and the equestrian order respectively, and their appellations of princeps senatits and princeps juventutis were afterwards appropriated to the emperors themselves and to their adopted heirs and successors in the empire. Hence the attribute princeps became definitely associated with the notions of sovereignty and dominion, and its derivatives have been always and everywhere employed as titles of dignity and expressions of awe or respect. In English the word &quot; prince &quot; may be used in certain connexions in the original wide sense of the Latin word. More definitely it is applicable to supreme rulers of both sexes and almost all kinds. Thus the emperor of Russia, the queen of England, and the king of the Belgians are equally princes or monarchs, and the consorts of emperors and kings are princesses. But the presidents of republics are neither princes nor monarchs. Prince, however, unlike monarch, applies to rulers who are subordinate as well as to rulers who are supreme, to such minor potentates as the electors of the old German empire or the feudal peers of France once were, and the reigning grand -dukes or dukes of Germany now are. Again, all the children and many of the descendants and other relations of monarchs and princes of every class and grade are themselves princes or princesses, although it often happens that they have also some special name or personal dignity by which they are ordinarily known. The eldest son of the emperor of Russia, for instance, is called the &quot;cesarewich,&quot; as the eldest son and next brother of the king of France under the ancien regime were called the &quot; dauphin &quot; and &quot; monsieur.&quot; In England for several centuries the younger sons of the sovereign have had dukedoms conferred on them, as in the cases of the dukes of Edinburgh, Connaught, and Albany, and from the reign of Edward IV. until the reign of Victoria the dukedom of York was always given to the second son and the dukedom of Gloucester to the third, unless it was already appropriated. The princes and princesses of Russia are &quot;grand-dukes&quot; and &quot;grand- duchesses,&quot; of Austria &quot;archdukes&quot; and &quot;archduchesses,&quot; and of Spain &quot;infants&quot; and &quot;infantas.&quot; Some of the eldest sons of kings are &quot; dukes,&quot; as the duke of Brabant in Belgium and the duke of Sparta in Greece. But, when they are not dukes, or princes with a territorial title, as the prince of Wales or the princes of Naples in Italy and Orange in Holland, they are described as &quot; princes &quot; with the additions of &quot;imperial,&quot; &quot;crown,&quot; &quot;royal,&quot; or &quot;here ditary,&quot; as the case may be, and the name of the dominions to which they are the heirs -apparent. The eldest sons of reigning grand -dukes or dukes, however, are called &quot;hereditary grand-dukes&quot; or &quot;hereditary dukes,&quot; their younger brothers and their sisters being all the same princes and princesses. The Prussian fashion of call ing the eldest daughter of the sovereign the &quot; princess royal &quot; was introduced into England by George II. It was not the custom, however, for the daughters of English monarchs to be entitled &quot; princesses &quot; at all until the reign of Charles I. The two daughters of Henry VIII. were the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth until they ascended the throne, for, although there is a tradition that they were both made princess of Wales successively, there is no evidence whatever to support it. As late as the reign of Charles II. the granddaughters of Charles I., daughters of James, duke of York, the heir-presumptive to the crown, were called the Lady Mary and the Lady Anne until they became princesses by marriage, the one as the wife of William, prince of Orange, and the other as the wife of Prince George of Denmark. It is difficult to say when the younger sons of English sovereigns Avere originally called &quot; princes.&quot; But the practice of so calling them prob ably began as early as the reign of Henry VII., although there was no opportunity of observing it again before the reign of James I., Avhen it was certainly established. In France before the Revolution the designation of &quot; princes du sang,&quot; or &quot; princes of the blood,&quot; was common from generation to generation to all the male descendants of the French kings, and they had precedence according to their proximity to the crown of all dignitaries and nobles. It was not, however, until the reign of Charles VII. or Louis XI. that they were called &quot;princes,&quot; their earlier appellation having been &quot;seigneurs du sang&quot; or &quot;seigneurs du lignage du roi.&quot; In France, too, the natural children of the king were, when formally acknowledged, termed &quot;princes legitimes,&quot; at any rate from the reign of Louis XIV., and although they were excluded from the line of succession to the throne they were ranked imme diately after the princes du sang. The princely character of all the male descendants of the imperial, royal, and other reigning families of the Continent, when neither illegitimate nor the issue of a morganatic marriage, is perpetual and indelible. Moreover, the families which were formerly reigning within the boundaries of the old German or existing Austrian empires, despite that they have now ceased to reign, are in this respect still in the full possession of their earlier privileges. But in England, on the contrary, it was considered necessary only about a quarter of a century ago to make express provision by royal authority that the titles of &quot; prince &quot; and &quot;princess&quot; should be enjoyed by the children of the sons as well as by the sons and daughters of any sovereign of the United Kingdom. It may therefore be concluded that they had no previous claim to the attributes of prince and princess, and that they will not transmit them to their posterity. Besides the more or less general uses of the words &quot; prince &quot; and &quot; princess &quot; which Ave have already noticed, there are the particular applications of them, first to a dis tinct class of rulers, and secondly to a particular order of nobility. Princes regarded as the political chiefs of states are inferior to emperors and kings, and not necessarily superior to reigning grand-dukes or dukes. Very few ex amples of them at present exist, those of Waldeck and Pyrmont, Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Monaco alone occur ring to us. None of the great feudatories of the Middle Ages, whether in Germany, France, or Spain, Avere formally described as princes, and of the mediatized families still extant Avho once supplied members to the imperial diet, many of them from a remote period, not one had the de signation of &quot;prince&quot; before the commencement of the 17th century, Avhile not more than five or six had it before the