3o6 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



There appear to be parks in England where the 

 plant is native where it is very abundant, but it is fre- 

 quently only naturalised, soon becoming established 

 in meadows. In Scotland and Ireland it is only 

 naturalised. 



Open woods, copses, mountain pastures, and 

 meadows, are the habitat of the Daffodil. It is found 

 on clays and loams on neutral grassland. 



" A host of golden Daffodils ; 

 Beside the lake, beneath the trees, 

 Fluttering and dancing in the breeze." 



- -( Wordsworth^ 



In habit Lily-like (hence Lent-Lily) the Daffodil 

 has a large bulb with membranous outer scales. The 

 leaves are two to three, bluish-green, nearly flat, with 

 a blunt keel, blunt. 



The scape is longer than the leaves, two-edged, 

 one-flowered. The flower is large, not scented, 

 solitary, bell-shaped, yellow, on a short stalk, further 

 in the spathe. The acute, ovate or oblong perianth- 

 segments are hardly longer than the tube, which is 

 wider above, bell-shaped, or broadly tubular, the 

 margin crisped, scalloped, obscurely six-lobed. The 

 capsule is top-shaped. 



Rarely exceeding a foot in height the Daffodil, 

 which is a herbaceous perennial, flowers in March, 

 April and May. 



Shakespeare, in the " Winter's Tale," rightly fixes 

 the time of blooming. 



