NARCISSUS. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



NARCISSUS. 



675 



and garden seedlings usually enjoy richly 

 manured soils, wild species, and the white 

 varieties of the Daffodil, N. triandrus, and 

 N. Bulbocodium usually die out on deep 

 richly manured borders, but frequently 

 live on poor, stony, or sandy soils, on dry 

 grassy banks, or amongst the roots on 

 the sunny sides of hedges, shrubs, stone 

 walls, and trees. 



N. biflorus (Primrose Peerless] is simi- 

 lar in habit to N. poeticus, but has creamy- 

 white flowers, two on a scape, and the rim 

 of the primrose corona is scariose but 

 colourless {i.e. not purple). N. biflorus is 

 now known to be a natural hybrid between 

 N. poeticus and N. Tazetta, having been 

 found wild with its parents near Mont- 

 pellier by Mr. Barr ; and also raised from 

 its parents in the garden by the Rev. Mr. 

 Engleheart. N. biflorus is naturalised in 

 England and Ireland, but is a native of 

 Europe. It is one of the easiest of all the 

 kinds to naturalise, and spreads rapidly, 

 but is usually supposed not to bear seed. 

 N. Dr. Laumonier (Wilks) is a very fine 

 seedling of this group. 



PRINCIPAL SPECIES OF NARCISSI. 



N. (Corbularia) Bulbocodium {The 

 Hooped\Petticoat Daffodil] represents a kind 

 having slender rush-like leaves. In Spain it 

 grows in wet meadows during winter and 

 spring, but is dried up throughout summer 

 and autumn. The types are golden- 

 yellow in Spain and Portugal, sulphur- 

 yellow in S. France, as at Biarritz and 

 Bayonne, one variety in the Pyrenean 

 district (N. Graellsii) is whitish, but in 

 Algeria grows the exquisite snowy-white 

 N. monophyllus. Hybrids between N. 

 Bulbocodium, N. triandrus, and the 

 Daffodil have been obtained in gardens, 

 and are also found wild. The main 

 varieties are conspicuus, a large, rich, 

 golden-yellow kind with green rushy 

 leaves ; tenuifolius, a small golden form, 

 having a six-lobed rim to the corona, and 

 very long rush leaves, which lie on the 

 ground ; nivalis, abundant in Portugal 

 and near Leon in Spain, a small golden 

 kind with short erect leaves ; praecox, a 

 large early-blooming form, found by Mr. 

 Barr in Spain ; citrinus, a pale French 

 form, varying much in size ; Graellsii, the 

 European white ; and monophyllus, the 

 African white. These are dainty bulbs for 

 pots or for choice borders on warm dry 

 soils. They can rarely be naturalised in 

 our country. 



N. cyclamineus {Cyclamen Daffodil}. 

 A dainty but not showy species, easily 

 grown in a peat-earth rock-garden or in 

 pots of peaty compost. It seldom exists 

 from year to year in the open air. It has 



lived on Grass in peat, and, no doubt, 

 could be naturalised easily enough on sandy 

 peat soils which are wet in winter and 

 spring, and dry in summer and autumn. 

 In April, 1892, I saw a most lovely 

 specimen low down in a damp little 

 grassy bay beside a mill-race at Mount 

 Usher in Wicklow. N. cyclamineus likes 

 the side of a stream, and is found by 

 streams in Portugal. Like N. triandrus, 

 it is readily raised from seed, and the seed- 

 lings flower the third year. It is 6 to 8 in. 

 high, and the scapes are about the same 

 length, each bearing a bright golden re- 

 flexed flower. It has sap-green leaves. 

 There are large and small forms, and a 

 bicolor variety seems to have been known 

 long ago. N. cyclamineus, although but 



Narcissus biflorus. 



lately re-discovered, was figured in French 

 books early in the seventeenth century. 

 Like N. Johnstoni, it came from Oporto 

 in 1884-85. 



N. incomparabilis {Star Daffodil}. 

 To this group belong N. incomparabilis, 

 Barrii, Burbidgei, odorus, Backhousei, Nel- 

 soni, Sabinei, tridymus, and the Pyrenean 

 wild hybrid, Bernardi, which is found wher- 

 ever N. variiformis and N. poeticus occur 

 together. Of N. incomparabilis there are 

 over a hundred named kinds, the best 

 being : Sir Watkin or Welsh Peerless, 

 Gloria Mundi, Queen Sophia, C. J. Back- 

 house, Princess Mary, Gwyther, splen- 

 dens, Beauty, Autocrat, Frank Miles, 

 Cynosure, James Bateman, King of 

 the Netherlands, Commander, Figaro, 

 Goliath, Mabel Cowan, Mary Anderson 

 X X 2 



