THE AMARYLLIS AND STAR LILY FAMILY. 183 



'In .the 'Gardeners' Chronicle' for June 10, 1865, the late 

 Mr W. Backhouse, of St John's, Walsingham, makes the fol- 

 lowing pertinent remarks on hybrid Narcissi : 



" The Daffodils Narcissus major, Pseudo-Narcissus minor, 

 and moschatus, cross with one another, and they produce seeds 

 as freely as the parents. The colours are not merely inter- 

 mediate, but of all shades between the colours of the parent 

 where these differ, as in moschatus. N. bicolor seeds badly, 

 and is deficient in pollen ; but from crosses of the other Daffo- 

 dils with it I have raised 'some of the largest and finest of the 

 class. These also seed badly, and their produce has a ten- 

 dency to revert to the Daffodil. The roots of N. bicolor are 

 very large, and shaped somewhat differently from the others, 

 and the crosses from it have the same peculiarity ; the colours 

 of the seedlings vary from those of their parents through white 

 with lemon cups to almost pure white. From the Daffodils 

 crossed by N. angustifolius (N. poeticus) the kinds called fazti- 

 dus by Dean Herbert are produced, and the cross is interme- 

 diate between the parents when IV. major and N. Pseudo-Nar- 

 cissus are used ; but with N. poeticus the variety is greater, and 

 some with very finely-expanded cups occur. The variety also 

 seems to be greater when some of the seedling varieties of the 

 Daffodil are used. These crosses seed very sparingly, but- may 

 occasionally be got to produce seed by a cross with either 

 parent ; those with the Daffodil having shorter cups than N. 

 major and moschatus, and those with N. poeticus or angusti- 

 folius being intermediate, with generally a red edge to the cup. 

 Seeds I have sown from plants not artificially impregnated pro- 

 duce the same result, some showing the Daffodil and others the 

 N. angustifolius type. The orange tints on some of these 

 crosses vary in differmt seasons. On many the cup will one 

 year be orange-tinted, and the next plain yellow. 



" The Daffodils crossed by N. Tazetta produce plants inter- 

 mediate between the two in general, but sometimes the cup is 

 not longer than in N. Tazetta ; the flowers on each stalk vary 

 two, four, and up to six occurring. These crosses vary in 

 colour and size according to the nature of the parent Tazetta ; 

 but the produce does not seed, except that last year one pod 

 producing one seed occurred from, perhaps, a couple of hun- 

 dred flowers. A warmer climate than mine might produce 

 different results. No pollen is to be got from it to cross with 

 the Daffodil parent. 



" The percentage of seedlings showing striking peculiarities 

 is but small from any of these crosses ; and the colours only 

 partially follow what might be expected from the parents. The 



