8 DAFFODILS NARCISSUS 



expert in producing definite results. But it 

 was not until the last century that any great 

 strides were thus made. In the year 1548 

 Turner is supposed to have described all then 

 known sorts — numbering twenty- four — in "/^ 

 Few Narcissus of Dieverse Sortes." A hun- 

 dred years later species, sub-species and their 

 varieties had apparently increased to ninety- 

 four, according to John Parkinson in his 

 "Paradisus Terrestris." 



Between 1840 and i860, two English ama- 

 teurs, William Backhouse, banker of Darling- 

 ton, and Edward Leeds, stockbroker of Man- 

 chester, did some remarkably good work in 

 hybridising narcissus and daffodils. The col- 

 lections of seedlings of these two gentlemen 

 have been largely responsible for increasing 

 popular interest in the cultivation and cross- 

 ing of narcissus and daffodils during recent 

 years. Among other devotees who have also 

 done good work are Messrs. Barr, Burbidge, 

 Engleheart, Hume and Nelson, all of whom 

 have been honoured by having groups, or type 

 sections, named after them. 



Daffodils had become so popular that in 

 1884 the Royal Horticultural Society of Eng- 



