54 DAFFODILS AND THEIR POISON 



to stroll with his hands in his pockets biting the ripe side 

 of the peaches as they hung upon a sunny wall. 



XVI 



It has always appeared somewhat of a mystery why 

 Daffodils ra ^bits and other herbivorus rodents greedily 

 and their devour certain plants, and avoid others of a 

 Poison kindred sort. Your copse may be starred in 

 April with wild yellow primroses; rabbits, however 

 numerous, will never nibble leaf or flower. But plant out 

 the crimson and mauve primroses from your garden, 

 which are merely sports from the wild species, and they 

 will speedily be gnawed to the quick. In such a case it 

 is not improbable that cultivation may have purged the 

 wild plant of some noxious flavour or poisonous property 

 which protected it ; but the puzzle is more obscure when 

 similar discrimination is shown between wild plants which 

 are nearly akin. In the iris family, for instance, the 

 common yellow iris and the wood iris or gladdon are 

 absolutely immune from rabbits and hares, whereas the 

 crocus never gets a chance while there is a rabbit left 

 aboveground. Again, the only constant difference dis- 

 tinguishing the amaryllis family from the iris family is 

 that the blossoms of the former have six stamens, those 

 of the latter only three. Yet rabbits scrupulously avoid 

 all our native amaryllids the daffodil, the snowdrop, and 

 the snowflake. Even mice and rats, which dig down to 

 the bulbs of crocus with such pestilent pertinacity, leave 

 those of daffodil severely alone. In the lily family, so 

 closely akin to both amaryllis and iris, the star of 

 Bethlehem, lily of the valley, the wild tulip, and the 



