FLORA AND SYLVA, 



NEW AND BEAUTIFUL DAFFODILS. 



The Daffodil Exhibitions of 1902 were remarkable for the quite exceptional 

 number of new and fine varieties of Narcissus, the fascinating 



NeW Daffodu" tifU ' and variable flower °f which the hybridization has afforded an 

 admirable field for skill and technical knowledge of a very 

 high order. Much has been done in this line during the last thirty years or 

 so, and it is by no means too much to hope that we shall enjoy many more 

 surprises and delights in seasons still to come, even if we do not live to see a 

 scarlet trumpet Ajax Daffodil. 



People are often heard to condemn and grumble at the price of most of 

 the recent fine introductions, but such persons are probably unaware of the 

 patience and ability required to produce a fine seedling Daffodil. From six to 

 seven years the raiser must wait, after he has sown the seeds, to see the bulbs 

 flower ; and then follows the slow process of propagation from natural subdivi- 

 sion. Later on, if any of the blooms have unusual merit, they are exhibited, 

 and competition for the bulbs of anything really fine runs up the price. So 

 many persons keenly desire a bulb to add to their collections — and there are 

 not quite enough bulbs to go round — that the hybridizer, who has evolved one 

 success from among thousands of seedlings discarded by his fine discernment, 

 obtains a well-earned reward. It seems churlish to grudge this to anyone who 

 permanently enriches a class of early and hardy flowers. High prices seem sel- 

 dom objected to when given for orchids, but surely it is more worthy to multi- 

 ply the treasures of the hardy garden than those of glass-house culture. 



In the beautiful class of self-yellow trumpet Daffodils the advent of King 

 Alfred marked a great advance. A noble, upstanding flower as one looks at 

 it in the sunlight, it seems as if hammered out of pure gold. 

 Seif-yeiiow j t - § en tirelv free from the slightest reproach of coarseness or 



Trumpet Daffodils. . r r • i • 1 j 



imperfect form, and its great height, and exact proper propor- 

 tion of perianth and trumpet, flower and foliage, place it in the very foremost 

 rank of excellence. Monarch, another fine self-yellow, is also full and stately. 

 Some monster blooms have come from Holland, the best of which are Glory 

 of Noordwijk, Queen Wilhelmina, Von Waveren's Giant, Rembrandt, and 

 Teniers, but they cannot enter into comparison with such a flower as King 

 Alfred. In most, if not all of them, there is a want of balance between their 

 stature and the size of their blooms ; and they cannot be said to be free from 

 coarseness. Some advocates of these flowers have suggested that they may 

 come taller in English gardens ; but, as this has not been the case with older 

 dwarf, large-flowered Dutch forms, it seems a scarcely probable development. 

 Lord Roberts and Cleopatra are new varieties of solid merit, the latter showing 

 some advance on Emperor. The raiser of King Alfred, Mr. P. J. Kendal, 



