80 DAFFODILS 



lands has so immensely increased the number of fine 

 flowers at the disposal of the gardener, professional or 

 amateur. We are debauched by a plethora of choice ; 

 the object should be, not to increase the confusion by 

 creating new varieties, but to purge the list of all but 

 the best, and produce these in the utmost perfection. 

 One has no wish to restore roses, carnations, gladiolus, 

 dahlias, pansies, and such like to primitive simplicity ; 

 for these have been surrendered long since to the 

 florist's craft; but as regards the narcissus, a race 

 which Nature has already made a masterpiece, it can 

 but be marred by man's meddling. Well spoke 

 Perdita of ' Nature's bastards ' : 



'I '11 not put 

 The dibble in earth to set one slip of them.' 



There is the less excuse for torturing the common 

 daffodil forasmuch as soil, climate, and other conditions 

 of environment have effected well-marked variety in 

 the forms it has assumed without man meddling with 

 it. These forms resolve themselves mainly into four, 

 viz., N. major (Linn.), larger in all its parts, with the 

 perianth segments of the same rich gold as the 

 trumpet; JV^. minor (Linn.), much smaller in all its 

 parts, having also the divisions and the trumpet of 

 uniform yellow; N. bicolor (Linn.), a splendid flower, 

 later in bloom, the trumpet full rich yellow, the outer 

 segments nearly white, just a tinge of cream ; and, 

 lastly, N. mosohatus (Linn.), with the whole flower 

 palest primrose changing to white. Some botanists 

 have followed Linnaeus in recognising all these as dis- 

 tinct species ; but the late Mr. J. G. Baker, who made a 



