MONKEITH 



now noted by us as extending from llth March 

 to 10th April, both inclusive. This puts the poet's 

 chronology in harmony with our present experience : 

 for the common daffodil is never at its prime till 

 the beginning of April, even in early districts. In 

 backward districts the full flush is not to be expected 

 before the middle of the month. It was on the 2nd 

 April that Miss Wilson made her study of daffodils 

 at Monreith, and they would have made a braver 

 show had she been able to wait till the following 

 week. 



There is no plant, not even the rose, which has 

 undergone more frequent transformation at the hands 

 of the hybridiser than the daffodil; but the natural 

 species were perfect before man took to playing 

 pranks with them, and I confess to thinking the new 

 varieties no improvement on the old types. Those 

 which have run riot through the Monreith woods are 

 the common sort, Narcissus pseudo-narcissus, which 

 is probably a native of England, and certainly 

 revels in the humid climate of Scotland. One wants 

 nothing better ; yet there are some varieties of this 

 species which it would be folly to reject. The one 

 known as bicolor, for instance, with a golden tube 

 and broad, ivory-white segments, is quite as beautiful 

 and as easily naturalised as the type, but it flowers 

 a fortnight or three weeks later. Then there are the 

 miniature forms, minor, nanus, and minimus, with 

 tube and segments alike of rich golden yellow. These 

 should be grown in borders, with such contemporary 



E 41 



