NARCISSUS. 



THE NARCISSUS is a very fine class of early blooming flowers, including the well known Daf- 

 fodil and Jonquil. Most of the varieties are hardy, and should be planted in the autumn, like the 



Hyacinth, but may remain in the ground a 

 number of years, after which they will become 

 so matted together as to make a division of 

 the roots necessary. 



The Single Narcissus is extremely hardy 

 and popular as a border Mower, and the cen- 

 tral cup being of a different color from the 

 six petals, makes the ttower exceedingly at- 

 tractive. Some have the petals of a light 

 yellow and the cup orange ; others have the 

 petals white and the cup yellow ; while the 

 Poet's Narcissus (Narcissus poeticus,) some- 

 times called Pheasant's Eye, is snowy white, 

 SINGLE NARCISSUS. DOUBLE NARCISSUS. the cup cream color, with a delicate fringed 



edge of red, which gives its latter name. The Double varieties are very desirable. The common 



Daffodil is well known under that name, though not so well by its true one, Van Sion. 

 The most beautiful class of the Narcissus family, however, is the Polyanthus Narcissus. The 



flowers are produced in clusters or trusses of from half a dozen to three times this number. 



Like the others, they show every shade of color, from the purest imaginable white to deep orange. 

 The Polyanthus Narcissus is not quite 



hardy in this climate, unless planted in a 



sandy soil, and well covered before winter, 



and then often fails ; further South it does 



well. For flowering in pots in the house 



the Polyanthus Narcissus is unsurpassed, 



and nothing can be more satisfactory for 



this purpose. The Jonquils are also de- 

 sirable for winter flowering. Three or four 



may be grown in a small pot. Try them in 



the house this winter ; you will find nothing 



sweeter. The Polyanthus Narcissus will 



also flower well in glasses of water, like the 



Hyacinth, and it is desirable to grow a few 



in this way, yet nothing looks so natural and 



nice as a good healthy plant in a neat pot of 



earth, and ,no other method leaves the bulb in a sound, healthy condition for the next season. 



SCILLAS. 



The SCILLA is the brightest and prettiest and hardiest of the early spring flowers. When the 

 Crocuses are in bloom the little modest S. Siberica and S. campanu- 

 lata may be seen throwing up a little cluster of flowers of the most in- 

 tense blue imaginable. The flower stem is only about four inches, and 

 is just the pretty flower that everybody craves for the button hole. The 

 plant flowers without showing a leaf. After the flowers are gone the 

 leaves appear, and these should not be injured. Many, after the flower 

 has disappeared, remove the leaves so as to make room for other plants, 

 but this course injures the bulbs unless the leaves are pretty well matured. 

 No bulb is more hardy or more competent to take care of itself. The 

 bulbs are quite small, as is also the plant, and, like all small bulbous 

 rooted plants, look best and are less likely to be destroyed if grown in 

 little masses a dozen or so in a group. When small bulbous roots are 

 SCILLA. scattered over the garden singly, they are almost certain to be destroyed 



especially where help in cleaning up the garden is occasionally employed. 



135 



TRUMPET NARCISSUS. POLYANTHUS NARCISSUS. 



