Miscellaneous. 225 



rate. Of the Trumpet narcissus the old fashioned yellow is the most com- 

 mon and the earliest, frequently called Daffodil, and now developed into 

 many forms. Another trumpet narcissus has a white perianth and yellow 

 corona, as in the famous Horsfieldi. Another is entirely white, as the 

 Leedsi. All these can be planted together. While the trumpet narcissus 

 has but one flower to a stalk, the polyanthus has a cluster. All the poly- 

 anthus are fragrant, wonderfully so, while the trumpet are not. All the 

 varieties of the trumpet are hardy, while many polyanthus are hot-house 

 plants, as the Paper White, so largely grown by florists for cut flowers, and 

 as the Chinese Sacred Lily or Oriental narcissus, frequently grown among 

 stones in a dish of water in private famiHes. But the polyanthus, known 

 as Grand Monarch, is perfectly hardy, and while it resembles the Chinese 

 Sacred Lily, it is much prettier. 



The narcissus is brave and cheerful. As Shakespeare, with his 

 matchless art, has said of it: "Daffodils, that come before the swallows 

 dare, and tinge the winds of March with beauty." A tulip bed is rich anil 

 gorgeous, like some bright dressed throng of its own Asia, but the hya- 

 cinth is the queen of them all — so delicate in color, so exquisite in form 

 They are of two kinds, the large Dutch of many shades, and the small, wil- 

 lowy Roman, usually white, the purple not being so pretty. The single 

 hyacinth is more beautiful than the double, as is the case in all bell-shaped 

 flowers, and moreover, the latter does not have so many blossoms to a 

 spike. For forcing the Roman is preferable, for it can be brought into 

 bloom by Christmas, while with the Dutch it takes two months longer. 

 The hyacinth has been loved and praised as long as literature has given 

 us any record and the Greeks invented wonderful stories of its origin, 

 how the lovely youth, Hyacinthus, was slain in a game of quoits, and from 

 the spot moistened by his life-blood, this emblem of his soul sprang up — 

 one of our own poets has the line: "Thy classic face, thy hyacinth 

 hair." 



But the tulip is of later date, having been brought about three cen- 

 turies ago from Asia Minor to Holland, where it became inseparably con- 

 nected with Dutch life and history. The Dutch are a slow, cautious, unex- 

 citeable people, but you will recall how this new flower stirred them from 

 these characteristics for once ; how they would pay hundreds of dollars for 

 one bulb, how an enthusiast would invest his whole fortune in 1 hem, how 

 a little bed of tulips would be guarded like a bank, and how things got to 

 such a height of fever and speculation that the government had to step in 

 and put a stop to these fictitious values. 



If you wish your narcissus, hyacinths and tulips to do well next 

 season, do not pull the flowers. Let them wither on the stalk. Then when 



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