78 THE BOOK OF THE DAFFODIL 



A "Book of the Daffodil" would hardly be complete 

 without a list of those Daffodils which have been certifi- 

 cated by the Royal Horticultural Society. That which 

 is now given is brought up to date and some short 

 descriptive particulars in each case added. 



In studying this list it must be remembered that an 

 A.M. (Award of Merit) is a distinction of great value, and 

 even more so of late years than it was some little time 

 back. It can hardly be doubted that many flowers 

 marked A.M. during the last year or two would have 

 received the F.C.C. (First Class Certificate) a few years 

 ago. The continually increasing number of very high- 

 class seedlings now raised has brought to the Narcissus 

 Committee an increasing sense of responsibility to the 

 public in the matter of Certificates and Awards, and of 

 the need of increased caution in granting them. The 

 Committee can only meet fortnightly, but new seedling 

 flowers are opening out daily during a season of about 

 two months, so that the candidates for honours cannot 

 be all presented together for examination and award, 

 and compared side by side. When a flower is presented 

 which is not only of high excellence, but has also very 

 distinct features which evidently separate it off from other 

 Daffodils of its particular group already in cultivation, 

 it is easy enough for the Committee to award it the 

 F.C.C. ; but there are many very fine types of flower of 

 which a great number of very high class seedlings are 

 raised, and which yet are not so widely different from 

 each other that this or that particular flower can be with 

 certainty pronounced so distinctly and so much in advance 

 of the others not present for comparison as to entitle it 

 immediately to the F.C.C. The only satisfactory method 

 in such cases seems to be to mark it off as distinctly and 

 considerably in advance of the general run of flowers of 

 its class by giving it an A.M., and leaving it for time and 

 further experience to prove whether it is so pre-eminent 



