122 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



treat, and the people from the neighbouring- town carry 

 them off, both hyacinths and daffodils, in great handfuls ; 

 but such is the profusion, that no amount of gathering 

 seems to reduce them in the least. If the bulbs of the 

 daffodil be taken up carefully a little before the time of 

 flowering, the change does not appear to affect them, and 

 in a fortnight's time they will be blossoming quite freely, 

 and they then form a very pleasing centrepiece for the 

 drawing-room table. After flowering, the bulbs should 

 be taken up and put in the garden, but the plants, though 

 they did not appear to feel the removal at the time, will 

 not blossom the next year, though after then again they 

 will have become quite established in their new home, and 

 will flower as freely as at first, if placed in a somewhat 

 moist and shady situation. We are told that at an inter- 

 national conference once held, the representative of Great 

 Britain was the most conspicuous figure present, as his 

 breast alone was bare of jewelled stars and orders, and in 

 like manner we may consider the daffodil to be truly 

 remarkable, for while almost every other plant in our flora 

 had some healing virtue, justly or empirically assigned to 

 it by our old herbalists, and many of them were each 

 individually a whole armoury in themselves against the 

 attacks of almost every disease, we are unable to find a 

 single medical reference to the daffodil. To compensate 

 for this neglect on the part of the followers of JEsculapius, 

 it is one of the favourite flowers of the poets : Drayton, 

 Herrick, Wordsworth, and others would readily supply 

 illustrations of this appreciation. 



The leaves of the daffodil are about a foot in length, 

 and of the same character as those of the wild hyacinth. 

 From the midst of the foliage rises the stem, slightly 



