296 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



others identify as " Tortuosus." No member of the Sub-Com- 

 mittee was able to point out two distinct forms which the two 

 names should represent. 



3. That " Cemuus " is liable to some variation, the extent 

 and permanence of which require further observation. 



4. That the variety registered provisionally as " Minnie 

 Warren " retains its distinct character. 



C. R. Sckase Dickins, Hon. Sec. 



NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF CULTIVATED NARCISSI. 

 By Mr. F. W. Burbidge, M.A., F.L.S., F.R.H.S., M.R.I.A. 



Introduction. 



I think to-day we may do worse than begin with the poetry of 

 the children — 



Queen Daffadowndilly has come into town 

 In yellow petticoats, and a green gown. 



It seems peculiarly appropriate to me that, dressed in her 

 richest attire, Queen Daffodil holds her court for four days in 

 this dear old Chiswick garden, sanctified as it is by many 

 memories of the best. Hither, to the Horticultural Gardens, 

 years upon years ago, before our springtide Queen was verily 

 crowned, came Haworth and Herbert, Salisbury and Sabine, 

 Sweet and Lindley, and many others who even then, in what to 

 many of us are remote times, loved and admired the Narcissus 

 for what it really was and is, viz., as the golden harbinger of 

 the opening year. Or, in the words of the poet — 



Herald and harbinger, with thee 

 Begins the year's great jubilee. 



We shall not repine at the Cinderella-like ill-treatment our 

 Queen of Spring had to undergo in the days of " bedding-out." 

 The "bedding-out" fashion itself has been badly treated of 

 late, and we are happy enough, and magnanimous enough, to- 

 day to forget all wrongs, real or imagined, and once more we 



