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in full bloom and beauty. And though very many of the flowers had 

 been previously gathered by children and other persons who had been 

 before me (for great numbers of people come every year to see the 

 sight), I was truly gratified and astonished at the magnificent display 

 of pure white blossoms which presented itself to view. A large por- 

 tion of the field was one sheet of white, — an extensive snowdrift, so to 

 say, in June ! One might have thought that all the Narcissuses out 

 of all the gardens in the county had been mustered together into this 

 spot in order to make one grand exhibition. They grew in large 

 dense masses ; so much so as to overpower, and apparently almost 

 obliterate, the grass and other herbage. I remarked to Mr. Smith, 

 the occupier of the land, that beautiful as these flowers were, 

 they must nevertheless be very prejudicial to his crop ; but he assured 

 me, he thought not, for he always observed, that at mowing-time he 

 had as much grass where the Narcissuses were thickest, as in any 

 other part of the field. I should describe the field as being a sort of 

 upland meadow, and it is situated near — too near to please a botanist 

 — to an ancient farm-house called Glaber's, or Glaver's Hall, about 

 two miles west of the village of Fillongley. Botanists of the present 

 day, I believe, are disposed to look upon Narcissus poeticus in 

 the light of a naturalized species only, and to exclude it from the list 

 of genuine natives. I am not going to controvert that opinion. In- 

 deed, there are several suspicious circumstances, which, to my mind, 

 militate against the notion of the Narcissus being indigenous in this 

 particular locality, whatever it may be in other places. First, who 

 knows but the " Lily Field " may be the site of a former garden or 

 pleasure-ground attached to Glaver's Hall when that was a place of 

 more consideration than it may seem to be at present ? But this is 

 only begging the question ; at any rate, however, the field (as already 

 hinted) is rather too near to the ancient farm-house, to be free from all 

 suspicion on that score, being separated from the present garden only 

 by an occupation road and an intervening portion of the farm-yard. 

 Secondly, the Narcissus is confined to this one field, with the excep- 

 tion, however, of one or two small patches in the orchard, which 

 nobody would take to be wild. It does not occur in other suitable 

 situations in the neighbourhood, as a true native would be likely to do. 

 And thirdly, a large portion, perhaps nearly half of the Narcissuses at 

 Glaver's Hall, produce double or semi-double flowers, i. e., flowers 

 with one or more imperfect petals issuing out of the cup. At the same 

 time there is no record or tradition of the field ever having been a gar- 

 den, or of the Narcissuses having been planted where they are now 



