40 



BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS 



course there is a genus of plants called Asphodelus, popularly 

 Asphodel, and its members have the best right to the name 

 Daffodil, which, however, belongs to a plant of a different 

 botanical order. 



Poets have made much use of the Daffodil, and if a name is 

 anything, poeticus is the true poet's Daffodil, but that is certainly 

 not the flower which Shakespeare had in mind when he wrote of 



"Daffodils, that come before the swallow dares 

 And take the winds of March with beauty," 



because they do not flower until late April or May. He must 



have referred to the Lent Lily, which 

 is an early bloomer, indeed all the 

 trumpets or Large - Crowns flower 

 early. An interesting and beautiful 

 member of the Large-Crowns class 

 is Bulbocodium or Corbularia. The 

 latter name springs from the likeness 

 of the crown to a basket (note also 

 "corbel" in architecture) corbularia 

 meaning 3. small basket. Bulboco- 

 dium is yellow, and there is a charm- 

 ing white variety called monophylla 



(one-leaf). In these pretty Daffodils the outer segments are quite 

 subordinate to the crown. The Medium-Crowns succeed the 

 Large, and are a most charming class. They are sometimes 

 called Chalice Daffodils, owing to the resemblance of the crown, 

 pointed out by that rare old writer Parkinson, to the wine 

 chalice at the Lord's Table. They are also spoken of as the 

 I ncom parables (Narcissus incomparabilis of botanists). 



The Small-Crowns (poeticus and its varieties) bloom last. It 

 is claimed for the Poet's Narciss that it is the legendary flower 

 which sprang from the body of vain Narcissus, who 



"Died to kiss his shadow in a brook." 



DEPTH AT WHICH TO PLANT DIFFERENT BULBS 

 A, Snowdrops, Crocuses, or Scillas; B, Jon- 



