BULBS 39 



showy beauty of its larger sister. It is cheap, and easy to manage, 

 thriving nearly anywhere. 



Daffodils and Narcissi. The true, typical Daffodil is the Lent 

 Lily, the botanical name of which is Narcissus pseudo-narcissus. 

 Popularly, Daffodils are Narcissi and Narcissi Daffodils, but to 

 be correct we may only speak of those Narcissi as Daffodils 

 which have long central tubes or trumpets. Every grower of 

 Narcissi will have noticed that the flowers are divisible, broadly, 

 into two parts : an outer ring of petals, called perianth segments, 

 and a central tube called the crown. In the big sorts like Emperor 

 and Empress the tube or " crown " is elongated into a trumpet, and 

 becomes the dominant part of the flower ; these are true Daffodils 

 glorified Lent Lilies. In others, the tube diminishes into a small 

 saucer which finds its most minute proportions in the Poet's 

 Narcissus, poeticus ; these are not Daffodils. To claim the popular 

 name of Daffodil the crown must be as long as the perianth segments. 



Wanting some plan of classifying Narcissi, the botanists adopted 

 that of comparing the length of the crown with that of the perianth 

 segments, and put them into three classes. The first, the Large- 

 Crowns (Magni-coronati), have flowers in which the crown is as 

 long as, or longer than, the outer petals. The second, the Medium- 

 Crowns (Medio-coronati\ have flowers in which the tube is only 

 about half the length of the segments. The third, the Small- 

 Crowns (Parvi-coronati\ have merely flattish, saucer-like crowns. 

 The classification is not a very satisfying one, and as the different 

 subsections have been crossed one with another there is a good 

 deal of confusion. But it need not worry ordinary growers. The 

 tangle may be left to the specialists, who will perhaps unravel it 

 some day. 



The origin of the word "daffodil" is somewhat curious. It 

 is derived from the Greek asphodelus, through the Old French 

 asphodile, and the Middle English affodile. The addition of the 

 "d" as a prefix was doubtless due to casual misspelling. Of 



