NARCISSI 561 
perianth, and the thread-like style ends in a blunt stigma. The seed 
vessel is a leathery capsule, containing numerous globose seeds. The 
species are natives of Europe and Northern and Western Asia; one 
British. 
Our native Daffodil, or Lent Lily, Narcissus Pseudo- 
narcissus, has always been a favourite garden flower. 
Theophrastus of Eresus, who lived B.c. 371-286, describes the Narkissos, 
and speaks of its seed being gathered by some persons “ for sowing.” 
The Poet’s Narcissus, V. poeticus, from South Europe, appears to have 
been the first of the foreign species to be introduced, but so long ago that 
the date is not recorded. The Jonquil, V. Jonquilla, was introduced 
from Spain some time previous to 1596. The Hoop-petticoat Narcissus, 
N. Bulbocodium, and the N. triandrus, both from Portugal, had both 
been introduced before 1629, for Parkinson refers to them as growing 
here, in his Paradisus, published at that date. The Polyanthus 
Narcissus, V. Tazetta, came from Spain in 1759. Many others have been 
introduced ; but we pause here to remark that, in the opinion of Mr. F. 
W. Burbidge, F.L.S., who has devoted great attention to the study and 
cultivation of the genus, these six are the only real species that are 
known to science, and that the other forms that rank as species in most 
works are natural hybrids, or natural varieties of them. He says: “ All 
these are known to exist as plants undubitably wild in Europe, and they 
all vary more or less widely as collected from different localities. All 
come true from seed if fertilised with pollen of another individual of the 
same species, and they hybridise so freely with each other, that given 
these six wild species alone in sufficient quantity and variety, and from 
them the hybridist and cultivator could stock our gardens with every 
garden variety of Narcissus now known and worth growing” (Jowrnal 
Hort. Soc., xi. 79). In the true species the stamens are attached 
either at the base of the tube (WV. Pseudo-narcissus and N. Bulbocodiwm), 
or near its mouth in two series (WV. poeticus, N. Tazetta, N. Jonquilla 
and NV. triandrus). In the hybrid forms the stamens are attached more 
or less half-way down the tube. 
Narcissus BuLgocopium (Bulboeodium- like). Bulb 
about two-thirds of an inch thick. Leaves slender, 
half-round, two or three to each scape. Flowers bright yellow, funnel- 
shaped, gradually enlarging from base of perianth to mouth of crown, 
divisions of perianth very narrow; margin of crown slightly crisped ; 
scape one-flowered, round, 4 to 8 inches high; April and May. Several 
varieties. 
N. JONQUILLA (Jonquil). Bulb somewhat less than 1 inch thick. 
IV.—17 
History. 
Principal Species. 
