RIVALRY OF PLANTS 165 



a true appreciation of values, a man who looked 

 beneath the surface of things and saw beauty in 

 hidden truths, a man who thought much and said 

 little. 



These men were rivals in their daffodil and 

 narcissus-growing pastime, and each of them 

 succeeded in producing some wonderful vari- 

 ations and adaptations in their plants. 



When these bankers died, their daffodil and 

 narcissus bulbs were offered for sale and fell into 

 the hands of a friend of mine, Peter Barr, a great 

 bulb expert of England. 



Peter Barr told me that though the bulbs 

 bought from those two estates were mixed and 

 planted indiscriminately on his proving grounds, 

 he could go through a field of those daffodils and 

 narcissus and, simply by the blossoms, tell which 

 had come from one estate and which from the 

 other. 



The flowers that came from the bulbs that 

 represented the work of the first mentioned 

 banker were large, strong, coarse, brightly 

 colored flowers — with a beauty that called to 

 the passer-by as loud as if with words, and a self- 

 reliant attitude as if bespeaking an ample ability 

 to take care of themselves. 



And the flowers which came from the bulbs 

 produced by the second mentioned grower were 



