838 



THE AMARYLLIS FAMILY. 



I. NARCISSUS. NAKCISSUS. 



Flowers either solitary or several together, from a terminal spatha. 

 Perianth with a distinct tube above the ovary, and 6 usually spreading 

 segments, with a cup-shaped or tubular, white or coloured crown at 

 their base, round the orifice of the tube. 



A well-defined and very natural genus, chiefly south European, not 

 extending into Asia beyond the Caucasus, and probably containing 

 but few real species, although some botanists, availing themselves of 

 the most trifling characters, observed chiefly in cultivated varieties, 

 have proposed the breaking it up into 15 or more genera, with above a 

 hundred supposed species. 

 Mowers solitary, the crown broadly tubular, as long as 



the segments .... 1. Daffodil N. 



Flowers usually 2, the crown very short and concave . 2. Two-flowered N. 



Several other cultivated species have occasionally established them- 

 selves for a time in the vicinity of gardens, particularly the poet's N. 

 (N. poeticus, Eng. Bot. t. 275), from the Mediterranean region, which 

 is near the two-flowered N., but has usually a solitary flower, of a pure 

 white, except the crown, which is yellow, often edged with orange or 

 crimson. 



1. Daffodil Narcissus. 



Narcissus Pseudonarcissus, Linn. 

 (Fig. 1010.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 17. Daffodil, Daffy -down-dilly.) 



Bulb rather large. Leaves usually 2 

 or 3, seldom a foot long, from 4 to 6 lines 

 broad, of a bluish- green. Stem rather 

 taller, with a single large, scentless, yel- 

 low flower. Perianth-tube about an 

 inch long, wider at the top ; the seg- 

 ments ovate or oblong, of the length of 

 the tube ; the crown very conspicuous, 

 broadly tubular, often longer than the 

 segments, and slightly 6-lobed, or waved 

 at the edge. 



In meadows and mountain-pastures, 

 dispersed over the greater part of tem- 

 perate Europe, especially France and 

 Spain. Abundant in many parts of 

 England, but in several instances only 

 as an escape from cultivation, as it soon 

 establishes itself in great quantities in a 

 Fig. 1010. meadow where it was once introduced ; 



