DAFFODIL CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION. 819 



and a flower of a poeticus kind, we shall still further reduce the 

 crown of the offspring; but the union of an " Incomparable" 

 and an Ajax will give us a somewhat more extended crown in 

 the seedling. If there is already a red edge or suffusion in the 

 crown of our flower we may be able to intensify it by crossing it 

 with a poeticus, which will add its own store of red or orange 

 colouring matter. And here I may mention that my own ex- 

 periments go to show that the varieties of poeticus or Pheasant- 

 eye Narcissus which have a wholly red crown do not really 

 contain more pigment than the commoner sorts, in which the 

 colour is concentrated into a narrower and darker ring. By a 

 careful selection of the most shapely, substantial, and robust 

 forms to breed from, we can, with considerable accuracy, secure 

 a fine progeny. Thus the round and well-shaped N. poeticus 

 omatus commonly tends to the production of good flowers, while 

 those which have the larger, but more flimsy, N. poeticus grandi- 

 florus for father or mother are usually wanting in solidity and 

 symmetry. 



It is strange that in modern times double Daffodils from seed 

 have been considered as almost non-existent, or as great rarities. 

 Those who have lately turned their attention in this direction 

 have found that it is by no means difficult to raise double seed- 

 lings. Thus I have myself saved a good deal of seed from 

 Telamonius plemts, the common double yellow of our gardens, 

 and have flowered some quite double seedlings. From the scarce 

 double cernuus, fertilised with pollen of an early single yellow 

 Ajax, I have obtained an extraordinary family, consisting so far 

 — for some of the plants have still to come into flower — of a 

 large and very early creamy- white double, a yellow double, and 

 a drooping yellow single. I have seedling plants which resulted 

 from the application of pollen of N. poeticus to flowers of the 

 common double yellow, and am awaiting their blooming with 

 much curiosity. It was remarked by Herbert and the early 

 raisers of cross-bred Narcissi that several varieties may be ob- 

 tained from one and the same seed-pod. This consideration, 

 taken in conjunction with the fact that, with very few exceptions 

 indeed, every known or discoverable variety of Narcissus will 

 breed with every other, demonstrates that the possible multipli- 

 cation of varied form and colour in seedling Narcissi is infinite. 



We may, as I have said, often ascertain the parentage of a 



