DAFFODIL CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION. 



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early in this century, effected and kept a record of many crosses ; 

 but his flowers were by no means all figured, and appear to have 

 either perished or been merged in other collections, so that their 

 identity is uncertain. The accounts left by Messrs. Leeds and 

 Backhouse of their work, though interesting, is not fully detailed, 

 and is at present being verified and supplemented by modern 

 experimenters — e.g., I have, from my own work, no doubt what- 

 ever that Mr. Backhouse's Emperor is an enlarged seedling from 

 N. lovifolius. Those of you who have access to the Society's 

 Journal will perhaps kindly refer to a paper upon the subject of 

 seedling Daffodils which I read in April 1889, so that I need 

 not again pass over quite the same ground. And with regard to 

 the history of the work done by our predecessors in raising seed- 

 lings, I there made reference to some excellent and almost 

 exhaustive papers written by our friend Mr. Burbidge. 



Of new cross-bred Narcissi flowered since we met last year, I 

 may instance a pretty and interesting hybrid raised by Prof. 

 M. Foster, between the white Hoop-petticoat and N. triandrus, 

 and a curious little yellow, clustered, sweet-scented flower of 

 my own production from N. pseudo-narcissus var. spitrius x 

 N. Jonquilla.* The latter hybrid belongs to the N. tridymus 

 group, and must be classed very near to N. muticus x N. 

 juncifolius, which is found occurring naturally on the Pyrenees. 

 It is an excellent example of a precisely "half-way" offspring 

 from two strikingly different parents. The father has from four 

 to six flowers on a stem, the mother but one ; the child has three. 

 In size of flower and breadth of leaf the seedling stands just 

 midway between the parents ; the yellow of the mother is a 

 little brightened by the father's more brilliant colour, and the 

 mother's scentless flower is replaced in the offspring by a flower 

 distinctly Jonquil-scented, but less powerfully so than the Jonquil. 



In looking at the host of Narcissi spread out for us here 



* Note. — Since the foregoing address was spoken, the following hybrids, 

 among others, have flowered in Kev. G. H. Engleheart's garden : — 



N. poeticus omatus x N. Tazetta Bazelman major, a three -flowered, 

 scape of creamy-white flowers with red-edged eye, approaching the poeticus 

 in size (Botanical Certificate and Award of Merit E.H.S. 1890). 



N. moschatus of the Pyrenees x N. triandrus 1 interesting as showing 



N. Emperor x N. triandrus. J the certain parentage of 



N. Johnstoni, which they closely resemble in structure. 



N. bicolor x N. poeticus in variety = N. Nelsoni. 



N. incomparabilis x N. poeticus recurvus, yielding new forms akin to 

 JV. Barrii and N. Burbidgei. 



