364 



On the Cultivation of Rare Plants. 



like those of the following plant, our Primrose Peerless, from 

 which it differs, generically in the structure of its tube and 

 crown. 



Narcissus Cothurnalis. Prodr. p. 225. Narcissus bi 

 florus. Smith in Engl. Bot. n. 276. cum Ic.—Curt. in Bot. Mag 

 n. 197. cum Ic. Narcissus medio-luteus vulgaris. Park. Par 

 p. 74. cum Ic. Narcissus Medio-luteus. Pass. Hort. vern. p. 19- 

 cum Ic. Majorem ilium, &c. Clus. Hist. PL lib. %.p. 156'. Un 

 52. Primrose Peerless. Nostratibus. 



Clusius informs us, that in his days this species was 

 supposed to grow wild jn England; but Parkinson says 

 he never could hear where, though " so common in all country 

 gardens, that we scarce give it place in our more curious 

 parks/' As it is a complete hybrid, it may in future ages 

 disappear : the defect however is not in its male organs, as 

 Mr. Ker imagines, for I have always found perfect pollen 

 in them ; but in the ovarium, which never contains any seeds. 

 I venture to say never, because I have carefully dissected 

 more than a thousand specimens at various times, without 

 finding even the rudiment of a seed. In a dried one, gathered 

 near Geneva, by Dick, and supposed to be wild, I found 

 none ; neither in several from the warmer climate of Mont- 

 pellier; nor in another from Siierard's herbarium. If this 

 plant had only appeared lately, I should have thought it had 

 been produced by the Dutch florists ; but as it was unquesti- 

 onably in most of our country gardens, so early as the fifteenth 

 century, it is most probably one of Nature's mules. That 

 new species of vegetables may be produced by human art, 

 equally distinct and fertile with those previously in existence, 

 I have not a shadow of doubt; all are alike the works of 



