947 



found. But there they are, in surprising profusion, and have been 

 time out of mind, and nobody knows how they got there. We may 

 say with Antigone on a different occasion, 



* * * % * " these are not of to-day, 

 Or yesterday, but through all ages live, 

 And none knows whence they sprung.'' 



Being on the subject of Narcissus, I feel inclined to call attention, 

 through the pages of the ' Phytologist,' to another little-known species, 

 which appears to me to have a fairer claim to be considered native. 

 I allude to a perfectly distinct daffodil found wild more than twenty 

 years ago near Tenby, in Pembrokeshire, by the late Joseph Boultbee, 

 Esq., from whom I received roots which I have long cultivated in the 

 garden. I have given this plant to many botanists and horticulturists, 

 none of whom had any previous acquaintance with the species ; nor 

 have I ever seen it in any garden, nursery, or collection, except as de- 

 rived from the above source. Not being, therefore, like Narcissus 

 poetic us, an old and favourite inhabitant of our gardens, it cannot 

 very well be a garden-stray or outcast, seeing it is quite unknown to 

 our gardens till of late years, unless indeed it occurs in a cultivated 

 state around Tenby; on which point I cannot speak. In 1830 I sent 

 the Tenby daffodil to the late Mr. Haworth, who pronounced it a new 

 and undescribed species, and recorded it in the ' Philosophical 

 Magazine ' for May of that year, and in his ' Narcissinearum Mono- 

 graphia,' under the name of Narcissus (Ajax) " lobularis ;" and so far 

 as I know, it is nowhere else described. I also sent fresh specimens 

 to Mr. Sowerby, who afterwards showed me an admirable drawing 

 which he had made of the plant, with a view, as I understood, to 

 its publication in the ' Supplement to English Botany ;' and why it 

 has not appeared in that publication, I am unable to state. From 

 Narcissus Pseudo-narcissus it differs in being a taller and more robust 

 plant, the petals and cup being of an uniform bright yellow, and the 

 latter divided into six lobes, whence its specific name of " lobularis." 

 In its time of flowering, it ranks among the earliest of the tribe, ex- 

 panding its blossoms sometimes in February, though more usually, 

 perhaps, it corresponds with Shakspeare's 



" Daffodils, 

 That come before the swallow dares, and take 

 The winds of March with beauty." 



