JOURNAL 
OF 
The New York Botanical Garden 
Vol. XXIV April, 1923 No. 280. 
GARDEN FORMS OF NARCISSUS. 
Narcissus, a vain youth of mythology, was given to gazing 
ods is evidenced through the names of some of the bo Aa 
sections of the genus, as Ajax, Coe aa eae 
brated the Warciscue i in song. 
Dioscorides, of the fe century A. D., was the first to treat 
of it scientifically. In 1629, Parkinson, in me Paradisus Terrestris 
ae ae descriptions and many in uals: notes referring 
alm one hundred varieties known at that time. Sweet, 
Sains Ellacombe, and many amateur aes sts and horti- 
culturists met and conn Narcissi at different times in the 
early part of the last centu 
hen Haworth wrote a monoeragh of them in 1831, published 
be found in our library nother early book (1836) containing 
descriptions of Narcissus is ‘' Amaryllidaceae”’ by Dean Herbert, 
fo) land's earliest amateur hybridists. His theories and 
ideas resulting ae crossing various sorts of Narcissi were the 
cause of added interes 
The first ee and they were also amateurs, were C. H. 
Backhouse and J. C. Leeds, pean men who grew — plants 
as a hobby and originated m: new varieties. Their work was 
accomplished approximately ee een 1840 and a 
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