INDUSTRIES 



ber of the great family of Blanchminster, whose 

 castle was at Enor and prison at La Val, 1 or 

 by the Bendictine monks who had a cell at 

 Tresco, 2 



These other flames, 



The spirits of men contemplative, were all 

 Enliven'd by the warmth, whose kindly force 

 Gives birth to flowers and fruits of holiness. 3 



or, at some later period, perchance by some 

 officer of the garrison stationed at St. Mary's, it 

 is now impossible to determine. But there the 

 flowers were, and there they flourished luxuri- 

 antly. The isolation of Scilly had always thrown 

 the inhabitants largely on their own resources. 

 For generations their only marketable com- 

 modity was kelp, which they obtained in large 

 amount by burning the ore- weed which has 

 always been very abundant on the rocky shores 

 of the islands. The kelp industry was ruined by 

 a right of pre-emption which was claimed by 

 the lord proprietor and injudiciously exercised by 

 his steward, and also by the discovery of chemical 

 substitutes for kelp. Various attempts were made 

 to introduce fisheries, but all these proved abortive. 

 The cultivation of early potatoes followed and 

 was attended with success, but it also served to 

 remind the Scillonians of their extremely pre- 

 carious means of subsistence. A hard frost or a 

 sudden gale meant the utter destruction and loss 

 of the crop. In or about the year 1870, Mr. 

 Augustus Smith, lord proprietor of the isles of 

 Scilly, advised some of his tenants to send a con- 

 signment of narcissus flowers to Covent Garden 

 market. The credit of acting upon this advice 

 is shared between Mr. Richard Mumford of Holy 

 Vale and Mr. William Trevellick of Rocky 

 Hill. The first consignment was small and 

 realized only ji. Thenceforward, however, for 

 a few years, at Tresco Abbey gardens and on a 

 few farms, flowers were cultivated, but with 



1 Pat. Roll, 3 Edw. II, May 10. 



* This conjecture, which has hitherto been based 

 solely upon the known habits and tastes of the 

 Benedictine monks, receives some support from the 

 fact that also on the slopes of St. Michael's Mount the 

 variety of the narcissus known as the Scilly White, 

 which grows wild in Scilly, has flourished from time 

 immemorial. Until the reign of Henry IV the 

 monks of St. Michael's Mount and those of Tresco 

 were of the same order the order of St. Benedict. 

 It was Henry V who granted St. Michael's to the 

 abbess and convent of Syon (Cal. of Pat. 2 Henry VI, 

 p. 205). Assuming therefore a Benedictine origin 

 for the flower, its introduction to Scilly and St. 

 Michael's Mount must have taken place in or before 

 the beginning of the fifteenth century. From recent 

 enquiries which the writer has caused to be instituted 

 at the Jardin des Plantes it would appear that the 

 Scilly White is also found growing wild on Mont St. 

 Michel, the seat of the original foundation of the 

 Benedictine order a further corroboration of the 

 theory that the Benedictines introduced the narcissus 

 into Cornwall. 



* Dante, Paradise, xxii, 44. 



indifferent success. In 1880 flower culture first 

 became remunerative on a small scale. In 1883 

 Mr. T. A. Dorrien-Smith, nephew of Mr. 

 Augustus Smith, who had succeeded his uncle 

 as lord proprietor, determined to study closely 

 the cultivation of the narcissus, and for this pur- 

 pose he visited Holland, Belgium, and the 

 Channel Islands. Finding that the flowers 

 were a month earlier in Scilly than in those 

 places, he purchased bulbs largely, for himself 

 and for his tenantry. The export of flowers, 

 from the Scilly Isles alone, rose in 1885 to 

 65 tons. The amount was 100 tons in 1887, 

 and has continued to increase, with slight 

 fluctuations, the returns for the last few years 

 having been as follows : * 



In 1901 the export amounted to 650 tons. 

 I 92 750 



^OS >, 7 

 J 94 800 



!95 >, 7 

 On the mainland the cultivation of the nar- 

 cissus for the market was first undertaken by 

 Mr. Andrew Lawrey of Varfell, in the parish 

 of Ludgvan, in the year 1885. Since that date 

 flower farms have been formed in the parishes of 

 St. Burian, Gulval, Lelant, Madron, Mylor, and 

 Paul, but Varfell continues to occupy a leading 

 position both for flowers and vegetables in West 

 Cornwall. 



On the islands little is done by way of 

 manuring the land for narcissus, the chief thing 

 being the separation, removal, and transplanting 

 of the bulbs every three years to prevent deterior- 

 ation. On the mainland, however, sea-weed and 

 bone meal are extensively used. It is also 

 claimed that the heavier soil of Ludgvan and 

 elsewhere produces more robust plants and better 

 blooms than the sandy soil of the islands. In 

 order to protect the flowers from the fierce 

 equinoctial gales the land is cut up into 

 rectangular strips, and these are surrounded by 

 hedges of veronica, escallonia, and privet. The 

 flower harvest begins on the islands in January, 

 and continues until the end of May. On the 

 mainland it is, roughly speaking, ten days or a 

 fortnight later. This affords employment to 

 great numbers of men, women, and children. 

 The flowers are gathered and tied up in bunches 

 of twelve each, and are then packed in boxes 

 and sent to most of the large towns of the 

 United Kingdom. The price of the flowers 

 varies ; early in the season a dozen bunches will 

 fetch as much as 3*. or 4*., late in the season the 

 price will sometimes be less than one-third of 

 that sum. The narcissus is not cultivated ex- 

 tensively under glass except at Tresco, where a 

 flower crop, followed by tomatoes, has proved 

 very remunerative. The varieties of the nar- 

 cissus which may be considered indigenous to 



4 The writer is indebted to the Great Western 

 Railway for these returns. 



579 



