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these things is the difficulty of transplanting them if not bought very young, 

 and even then they often fail. Besides, there is the expense of transplanting 

 and no end of labour entirely got rid of by bold sowing, and my friends and 

 myself see better effects from this work, simple as it is, than has been got in 

 other ways with many times the expense and labour. In garden culture it would 

 often repay to slightly cover the seed, and in sowing small pieces it would be 

 safer to do so; but in dealing with various surfaces about a country place, and 

 using seed freely, I never found it necessary. 



J*i ^V, ^ 



''i? ''t? 



NARCISSUS MAXIMUS, A> 



N. maximus superbus was discovered and intro- 

 duced some few years ago by Mr. W. d'Arcy Os- 

 borne, the Rev. C. Wolley Dod, and others, from 

 a locality where it grows wild between Dax and 

 Bayonne. This plant has also been called N. maxi- 

 mus longivirens. At its best it is a noble flower, a trifle 

 paler in hue than N. maximus proper, and its foliage 

 has the peculiarity of remaining green for a month 

 or longer after that of the garden form N. maximus, 

 growing alongside it, has died away. 



Its full history was told by Mr. Wolley Dod 

 in the Journal of Horticulture at about the time he 

 made a special journey to the wild locality where 

 it grows, or was found growing some years ago. 

 N. maximus at its best still remains one of the best of 

 all the self-golden Daffodils. Its one fault is that it 

 does not succeed well on all soils. I sometimes won- 

 der that our Daffodil breeders have not raised self- 

 fertilised seedlings of it by the hundred in the hope 

 of obtaining a A^. maximus with a better constitu- 

 tion, or, shall we say, a more robust habit of growth. 

 It is the same with Daffodils as with potatoes, they 

 are apt to wear out, being continually increased by 

 offsets and grown year after year on the same soil. 

 New blood in the shape of seedlings, as it seems to 

 me, is one way, and perhaps the best way, out of the 

 difficulty. 



N. maximus crossed with N. Santa Maria, a wild 

 Spanish kind of splendid colour, might yield fine 

 self-yellow kinds, and it is quite possible that N. 

 obvallaris crossed with N. Santa Maria might yield 

 us a golden-flowered race of early flowers. M. J. 

 Berkeley is apparently one of the few seedlings from 

 N. maximus, but is not so stately, and has a wide 

 spreading perianth of a greenish golden hue and 

 flowering at about the same time. 



A very interesting and apparently robust seed- 

 ling golden Daffodil, not unlike a small N. maximus, 

 but rather more shapely, had an award of merit at 

 Birmingham this year. It is named Ducat, and is 

 likely to be heard of again. 



D THE NEWER NARCISSI. 



N. obvallaris, like A^. maximus, has a habit of 

 failing on some soils, while quite free in others, and 

 a more vigorous growing N. obvallaris would prove 

 a welcome addition to the stock of those who culti- 

 vate early flowers for market, or bulbs for pot cul- 

 ture in the greenhouse or conservatory. 



In looking over the new seedling Narcissi of 

 1903 one cannot but notice that they mostly fall 

 into one or other of three lines : — First, we have an 

 influx of the exquisite white or ivory tinted Daffo- 

 dils, heralded in in 1883 by the flowering of Madame 

 de Graaff. Peter Barr, Mrs. George Barr, Mrs. Hill- 

 house, Constance Pearson, Loveliness, Francesca, 

 Warley Magna, Mrs. Robert Sydenham, Queen 

 Christina, and many others are modern examples of 

 this class. In this class some allusion may be made 

 to the giant self and bicolor Daffodils, which have 

 irreverently been termed " pot-house flowers," since 

 their size is in the main their only recommendation. 

 An exception may be made in the case of Royal, a 

 solitary flower of which was exhibited by its raiser, 

 Mr. Engleheart, at Birmingham recently. Royal is 

 a shapely giant 6\ inches across the expanded peri- 

 anth and i\ inches or more across the frilled trum- 

 pet : Van Waveren's Giant, Hodsock's Pride, Lady 

 Headfort's seedling, Madame Plemp, Glory of Ley- 

 den, and many others are rarely seen in really good 

 form. Amongst the refined or shapely giants may 

 be placed Ellen Willmott, Weardale Perfection, 

 Monarch, Duke of Bedford, and Royal, which so far 

 is probably the largest of all, and will no doubt ap- 

 pear in another season or two in much fresher and 

 more perfect condition. 



The second branch of progress is represented by 

 the exquisite crosses between N. triandrus and vari- 

 ous Daffodils, which fall into the A^. Johns toni sec- 

 tion, and of which Mr. Engleheart's Snowdrop was 

 one of the early examples. A^. triandrus acts on the 

 Daffodils as a potent rectifier, and gives to their 

 offspring exquisite refinements of colour, of texture, 

 and of form. We see this very readily in looking 



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