86 WHEN DAFFODILS BEGIN TO PEER 



the 'halswort' or narcissus are to be pounded with 

 oil and meal, which, used as a poultice, ' healeth 

 wonderfully the wounds which are produced on 

 man.' Yet this plant must have some potent pro- 

 perty of which we wot not, else how comes it that 

 the almost omnivorous rabbit, which disdaineth not, 

 but greatly coveteth the kindred crocus, will not touch 

 the daffodil ? 



One other native narcissus we may reckon, indigen- 

 ous to Ireland and southern England, inferior in 

 profusion and beauty to the other, but diffusing a 

 delicious fragrance 'a sweet but stuffing scent,' says 

 the fastidious Parkinson. This is the twin-flowered 

 narcissus or ' primrose peerless ' (N. biflorus), whereof 

 the perianth is cream-coloured and yellow. 



Others there are from foreign climes which adapt 

 themselves bravely to our soil and climate, propagating 

 themselves through woodland and meadow. Of these 

 the nonpareil (N. incomparabilis) in almost countless 

 variety, single and double, begins before the common 

 daffodil fades, of which the double form goes by the 

 homely name of ' butter-and-eggs ' ; the jonquil (a corrup- 

 tion of its specific name juncifolius rush-leaved) and 

 the campernelle (N. odorus) rival each other in fra- 

 grance ; until, latest of all, and perhaps most lovely of 

 all, comes the poet's narcissus or pheasant eye (N. 

 poeticus), of spotless white with crimson or scarlet cup. 

 This seems to be the purple narcissus of Dioscorides 

 and Virgil, which modern critics have boggled over, 

 seeing that white and gold, not purple, are the distin- 



