8 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



beautiful in existence, but being mad upon this subject perhaps I 

 overrate its perfection. Amongst later writers on the subject, 

 Salisbury, Haworth, and Herbert are full of importance, but I 

 must commend to you the useful work of Mr. Burbidge on the 

 Narcissus, published a few years since, as a storehouse of accurate 

 information, illustrated with attractive and truthful pictures of 

 about sixty of the most distinctive kinds. 



There are in cultivation at least 150 named species and varieties 

 of Narcissus, and Mr. Barr, one of the most active of the Narcis- 

 somaniac9, has an immense collection of seedlings for the enrich- 

 ment of our collections, so that it may be safely said the next 

 generation will have command of over two hundred varieties of 

 these delighful, useful, seasonable, glorious flowers. And shall I 

 tell you what will appear to many as a flight of fancy, but is in 

 truth a sober but most interesting fact ? Every one of these has a 

 history ! Yes, in every good garden of Daffodils there are two 

 hundred histories represented by beautiful flowers ; and the great 

 garland, if we may call it such, is dotted and spangled and bound 

 together with the experiences and speculations of curious students, 

 experienced travellers, and enthusiasts of such irrepressible vitality 

 that death alone is able to subdue them. And we may even 

 suppose them after death carrying their love of God's work into 

 the sunny prairies where the imperishable Asphodels expand their 

 golden chalices filled with the waters of eternal life — where there 

 is none of that contention about classification and nomenclature 

 that results from our incapacity to understand the simplest flowers 

 that bloom at our feet. 



But these flowers, if we speak by comparison, are not so simple 

 as they may appear. I will briefly direct your attention to one 

 amongst a thousand problems they compel us to consider. You 

 will observe that the centre of every true Narciss is occupied 

 with a trumpet, a chalice, a cup, a saucer, a discus, call it what 

 you will: the botanist calls it a crown or corona. Now, what is 

 the corona ? To this question no one living is competent to make 

 reply ; it seems as if Nature had crowned these flowers with the 

 double purpose of exalting them and humbling the botanist. There 

 are six divisions in the perianth, and these we may regard as con- 



