Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/860

 836 PRIMORSK PRIMROSE daughters ; but if he leave no sons, then the daughters share alike. But whatever be the truth in respect to this matter, certainly the conquest introduced the policy and rules of the continental feudal system, and thus prepared the way for the general adoption of the cus- tom of primogeniture ; so that eldest sons ac- quired the right of succession, primarily, to the lands held in fee, and consequently to the titles of dignity which were appurtenant to them. The canon of the common law touching de- scents which pertains to this subject is, that if a man dies seized of real estate of which he had the absolute ownership, without having made any disposition of it by his last will, the whole descends to his heir at law ; and this heir at law is that one of his representatives who is the eldest male among those who are in the same degree of kindred. On this rule rests the English custom, and, as Gibbon calls it, the " insolent prerogative " of primogeniture. But large landed estates are perpetuated in families in England far less by this custom of primogeniture (which does not interfere with the owner's legal capacity of testamentary dis- posal) than by the system of settlements and entails, which rests on principles quite distinct from the former. The English law once al- lowed land to be entailed interminably, but this power has been gradually reduced, until now the longest settlement can extend only 21 years beyond lives in being when it is made, and the preference of the eldest son, though universal, is in this case altogether voluntary, as in that of a will. Yet the entail very rarely expires with the original limitation, as the first heir on coming of age may join with the exist- ing possessor in resettling the estate and so prolonging the entail. In case of personal property, the right of primogeniture does not exist. In France primogeniture was abolished in 1789, and since that period the tendency of legislation in all countries except the British islands has been to its abolition. In Portugal, where the custom of primogeniture most ex- tensively prevailed, the younger sons of the great families, too proud to work, not rarely lived on alms. In France they crowded into the church and the army, or led a life of com- plete and often destitute idleness. PRIMORSK, or Littoral Province, the eastern- most division of Siberia, established in 1858, and extending between lat. 42 20' and 70 N., and Ion. 131 E. and 170 W. ; area, 731,- 942 sq. m. ; pop. in 1867, 43,320. It is bound- ed by the Polar sea, Behring strait, Behring sea, the Pacific ocean, the sea of Okhotsk, the sea of Japan, Oorea, Mantchooria, the Amoor province, and Yakutsk, and is divided into the circles of Petropavlovsk (Kamtchatka), Gizhi- ginsk, Okhotsk, Udsk, Nikolayevsk, Sofiisk, and Usuri. The Stanovoi and Bureya mountain ranges form almost the entire N. W. and W. boundary. The Amoor in the southwest and the Anadyr in the northeast are the principal rivers. The island of Saghalien and the Rus- sian Kuriles form part of the province. The inhabitants include Kamtchadales, Tchuktchis, Koriaks, Ainos, Russians, Mantchoos, and Jap- anese. Nikolayevsk, opposite the N. extrem- ity of Saghalien, is the capital. (See SIBERIA.) PRIMROSE, the name of a plant which in old English and French was written primer ole, from the Italian primaverola, the diminutive of primavera, spring, which according to Pryor originally belonged to the daisy, but has been in some unaccountable manner transferred to primula veris. The genus primula (Lat., di- minutive of primus, first) gives its name to a rather large and ornamental family, the pri- mulacece, which is very frequent in alpine re- gions ; it is distinguished from other monopet- alous families with regular flowers by having the stamens opposite to, and not alternate with, the lobes of the corolla ; they are herbs with radical or opposite or whorled leaves, four or five corolla lobes and stamens, and a one-celled, many-seeded capsule. In primula the leaves are all radical ; the solitary or umbellate flow- ers on radical stalks ; the corolla with a straight tube, and a five-lobed, spreading limb, the di- visions of which are often notched or two- cleft. There are two native species of prim- rose found along the northern borders of the eastern states, both somewhat rare. The bird's- eye primrose (P. farinosd), also a native of Europe, has the under side of its obovate lan- ceolate leaves, upper part of flower stem, and calyx covered with a white mealiness; the flower stalk 6 to 10 in. high, bearing several (sometimes 20) handsome, pale lilac flowers, with a yellow eye. The Mistassinnie primrose (P. Mistassinica), so called by Michaux because he first found it near a Canadian lake of that name, occurs from Maine to northern New York and westward to Michigan and Wiscon- sin, along the shores of lakes ; it is a very pretty little species, its veiny leaves not mealy t and having from one to eight flesh-colored flowers, upon a stem 2 to 6 in. high. Several other species are found on the mountains of the far west, one of which, first discovered on Pike's peak by Dr. C. C. Parry (P. Parryi), and since found on other Rocky mountain peaks, is one of the most beautiful of the genus, having very large flowers of the richest purple. Attempts to cultivate it have failed; in its native localities it blooms along alpine streams where its roots are bathed with ice-cold water from melting shows, a condition not readily imitated in cultivation. The common prim- rose of England and northern Europe, the prim- rose of poetry, is a plant which has proved very puzzling to botanists ; under 'the names of primrose, cowslip, and oxlip, three very dis- tinct forms are popularly recognized, and some botanists accept these as three species, while others return to the views of Linnaeus, who placed them as varieties of one species, P. veris; these varieties or species have by crossing pro- duced several other forms, and in the confusion thus caused it will serve the present purpose