OLD-TIME AND MODERN 7 



influences have assisted in typifying several 

 forms. Particularly responsible for this are 

 local conditions of soil, climate, altitude and 

 season — for environment moulds character 

 and fixes types through the survival of the 

 fittest. All of these wild types, by the way, 

 are favourites for naturalising, as they show 

 no deterioration under such conditions, as do 

 the larger flowering modern garden hybrids 

 when grown wild. 



The first gardens that people had were 

 composed of medicinal herbs, then were 

 added a few things good to eat, and after- 

 wards pretty plants to embellish. Among the 

 first chosen flowering plants for gardens were 

 narcissus and daffodils. In some gardens, a 

 number of collected kinds were grown, which 

 sometimes resulted in "garden crosses" and 

 the production of new forms and varieties. 

 Occasionally, new kinds of marked beauty or 

 distinctiveness would be raised. These pleas- 

 ing surprises, added to the intrinsic value of 

 the narcissus as garden flowers, fanned the 

 interest of cultivators into such a glow that 

 some cultivators eventually learned to arti- 

 ficially cross different types and even become 



