Narcissus.] ajiarylijdacejs. 499 



ouv gardens could boast but little variety, the more showy productions of our fields 

 and groves would naturally attract attention from the horticulturist, and, escaping 

 from his care, be subsequently found established as often in the vicinity of such 

 spots as in their more natural localities. 



1 2. N. hifloriis. Curt. Pale Tivo-Jioivered Narcissus. Primrose 

 Peerless. Spathe mostly 3-flowered, cup very short depressed 

 scariose and crenate at the margin, leaves acutely keeled twisted 

 their edges inflexed. Curt. Bot. Mag. vi. t. 197. Sm. E. Fl. ii. 

 132. Br. Fl. 430. Bah. Man. E. B. iv. t. 276. 



In dry sandy fields, woods, meadows, pastures, orchards, and on hedgebanks, 

 occasionally, but scarcely indigenous. Fl. April, May. 



E. Med. — In several fields between Wootton bridge and the church, but very 

 sparingly scattered, 1842. Sparingly naturalized in a meadow nearly facing ihe 

 stables at Steepbill, Dr. Martin .'.'.' A specimen or two found in Marina wood, 

 at Apley, by [the late] A. T. S. Dodd, Esq., Iy46!!! In some plenty in the mea- 

 dow near Hardingshoot farm in which Tulipa sylvestris grows, 1849. 



W.Med. — A single large tuft in a meadow behind Gurnet bay, 1843. In 

 fields on the West side of Gurnet bay, in several places, but particularly about 

 Hornhill copse, where it grows in very considerable plenty on tlie grassy banks 

 and borders of the fields, and even in the wood itself; most completely natural- 

 ized, and more abundant than I have ever before met with it in this island, 1846. 

 In a little copse near Place farm, W. Cowes, Miss Kilderbee, 1846. I understand 

 from Miss Clarke, of Yarmouth, that it grows very abundantly in a small field by 

 the Yar, at the N.E. angle of Thorley copse, opposite Yarmouth mill, as well as 

 in the copse itself, 1846. A solitary plant in a sandy arable field by Marvel 

 copse, 1845. In a field near Wilmingham, scarcely wild. Rev. James Penfold. 

 Hedgebank near Thorley, far from any garden, but in very moderate quantity, 

 id. .'.'.' Field by Debburne farm, in some plenty, Miss G. Kilderbee .'.'.' (a suspi- 

 cious station). Gurnet wood, ead.! 



A far larger and stouter species than the last, growing in clumps, very common 

 in cottage-gardens, from whence it often escapes into the adjoining fields, parti- 

 cularly where the soil is light and sandy, or is conveyed to those more remote with 

 compost ; but, though long persistent when once introduced, as is the case with 

 many bulbous plants, it has not quite the appearance of being really native with 

 us, whatever it may be in the West of England or about Dublin, where it is stated 

 to be common. Sulb large, 16 to 18 lines in diameter,, with a pale brown cuti- 

 cle and many stout white fibres. Leaves two or three, sometimes four or five, 

 about as long as the scape or sometimes a little longer, from about 4 to 9 or 10 

 lines in width, very thick, firm and fleshy, somewhat glaucous, deeply caniculate, 

 twisted, with pale, thickened, obtuse tips, grooved at the back, with a thin acute 

 keel running the whole length of the leaf, the edges of which are partly inflexed. 

 Scape mostly solitary, sometimes two, from about 12 or 15 inches to 2 feet high, 

 acutely ancipital, much compressed, deeply striated, hollow and twisted, 1- or 

 more commonly 2-, seldom 3- flowered. >S/)aJ/ie pale brown, withering. Flowers 

 large, often two inches across, very sweet scented ; perianth-segments while very 

 slightly tinged with yellow, obovato-rotundate, mostly retuse, with a, glanduloso- 

 pilose mucro, the three exterior segments largest; all spreading, undulated or 

 inflexed, faintly striated. Cup yellow, saucer-shaped, very short and depressed, 

 plaited and crenale on the margin, which is sometimes, though, as Bertoloni ob. 

 serves, not always, whitish and scariose, much contracted at the top of the long, 

 slender, trigonous, green tube. Stamens unequal, the\T filaments adnate with the 

 tube for almost their entire length ; anthers linear-lanceolate, pale buif, their sum- 

 mits twisted and recurved, three of them just visible at the contracted orifice of the 

 tube. Style grooved, twisted; stigma of three flat, roundish, fringed lobes. 



The Primrose Peerless seems to be more frequent in the West of England (as 

 Gerarde remarks) than in the eastern counties, and Mr. Mackay, in the ' Flora 

 Hibernica,' gives it, without comment, as a native of the sister isle ; yet I appre- 



