318 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



to-day, you will notice that over one-half — probably quite two- 

 thirds — belong to the large section in which the central part of 

 the flower is much shorter and shallower than it is in the Ajax 

 or trumpet Daffodils — is rather a crown or an eye than a 

 trumpet. This large section has been subdivided into several 

 sub-sections, according to the varying length or brevity of the 

 crown in proportion to that of the perianth or outer division of 

 the flower. In order to simplify my language, I will for the 

 moment merge the names of these sub-sections, such as Barrii, 

 Burhiclgei, Backhousei, Nelsoni, &c, in the one older term of 

 incom'parabilis — the Incomparable or Nonpareil Daffodil of our 

 old gardeners. It was long ago guessed by Herbert, and proved 

 by his experiments in hybridising, that this shallow-cupped 

 Daffodil is no species " one and indivisible," but the outcome of 

 a cross between the trumpet Daffodil and the Pheasant-eye, 

 N. poeticus. The truth of this has been amply corroborated by 

 the productions of Leeds and Backhouse, and I am able to state 

 that I have in my own garden raised these ''Nonpareils" in 

 considerable variety by bringing about intermarriages between 

 various trumpet Daffodils and the poeticus Narcissus. The great 

 variety of shape and tint which you observe in this large group 

 of short-crowned Narcissi is easily accounted for, as is also their 

 extended season of flowering. It is a purely arithmetical 

 reckoning. Given some hundreds of forms of Ajax or trumpet 

 Daffodil, of which no two are precisely alike in colour, form, or 

 substance, and a dozen kinds of Pheasant-eye of which no two 

 are exactly alike, how many different combinations of Ajax and 

 Pheasant-eye, taken two and two together, can be arranged? 

 And as both Ajax and Pheasant- eye may be had in bloom simul- 

 taneously from the middle of March until the middle of May, 

 roughly speaking, it is evident that we may obtain Nonpareils, 

 or intermediate Daffodils, to flower during the whole of that 

 period. 



But when we have obtained this multiform progeny of 

 short-crowned flowers, it is found that they in their turn will 

 intermarry among themselves and with their parents, the trumpet 

 Daffodils and the Pheasant-eyes, so that our computation be- 

 comes very intricate. But we can, to a large extent, mould the 

 hybrid to our design, according to the elements we employ in 

 the mixture. Thus, if we marry one of this short-crowned race 



