12 JOURNAL OV THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



search of the very flowers that we left blooming on our own door- 

 step, for knowledge, like charity, begins at home. 



Now, in conclusion, I will ask you why the Daffodils should so 

 deeply interest us and fill so many big books? As a matter of 

 course, as a learned lecturer, I must answer the question myself. 

 It is not because of their beauty, or their hardiness, or their associa- 

 tion with the opening spring. All these considerations contribute 

 to their popularity because they contribute to their usefulness. 

 The great secret of their hold on our affections is that they carry 

 within their charmingly chiselled chalices not only the wine of a 

 new life and a refreshment that is incapable of exhaustion — besides 

 these passports to our affection, these flowers possess in a peculiar 

 manner the interest of human life in their habitudes and histories. 

 The story begins with the beautiful youth who is represented as 

 ridiculously innocent, and it then runs through the hearts of many 

 generations of philosophers, and comes to us at last loaded with 

 grave questions the philosophers were gravelled by. Thus the 

 blooming boy whom Death swallowed as the punishment of his 

 vanity becomes a high priest for ever in the temple of Flora, and 

 I conclude this hasty and fragmentary address by saying that, boy 

 as he is, I as one of the learned elders desire now and here to pay 

 respectful homage to his pretty name of Narcissus. 



LECTURE ON THE PELARGONIUM. 



By Shirley Hibberd. 



The following is the text of the lecture delivered by Mr. Shirley 

 Hibberd in the Council Chamber of the Royal Horticultural Society 

 on the occasion of the Pelargonium Society's annual Exhibition, 

 June 29th. 



The Pelargonium affords a subject large enough to occupy as many 

 hours, days, or even weeks, as the mere moments I shall devote to 

 it on the present occasion. The plants on the table represent in 

 part the beautiful collection of species and hybrids in possession of 



