DAFFODIL CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION. 



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over the line of distinction between N. pseudo -narcissus and 

 N. incomparabilis, and again between N. incomparabilis and 

 N. poeticus. The sections called Humei, Backhousei, Sabini, 

 Nelsoni, Burbidgei — I may add tridymus and others — make an 

 unbroken series from the largest crown to the smallest, and 

 hybrid has been crossed with hybrid, and species with species, 

 till we are at a loss in cultivated forms where to find the limit 

 of the pseudo-narcissus. But when we come to look over the 

 varieties which have arisen from crosses of different sections of 

 the trumpet Daffodil, we get quite bewildered by their multitude. 

 Indeed, in every garden where many kinds are grown, and are 

 allowed to ripen and shed their seed, and the seedlings are left 

 to mature by four or five years' growth, change upon change, and 

 novelty after novelty, may be reasonably expected and are very 

 often found. But there is a great difference in climates and soils; 

 some are far more favourable for the development of fine varieties 

 than others. 



In these suitable soils seedlings show advances, whilst in 

 others they seem to deteriorate from their parents. Some of the 

 finest garden varieties are said to have been raised by accident, 

 without any artificial crossing. Therefore all who grow good 

 Daffodils may hope some day to find a better, unexpectedly, 

 especially if they go about on sunny days with a camel-hair 

 pencil transferring pollen to stigma amongst the best varieties, 

 and tying a bit of scarlet wool round the stalk of the flowers 

 dressed, to save them from being cut for the drawing-room. 



It may be mentioned, as a mark of the appreciation in which 

 fine novelties in this class are now held, that when Emperor and 

 Empress were first offered to the public, about fifteen years ago, 

 their price was two shillings and sixpence each ; but last year 

 Madame de Graaff and Glory of Leyden were brought out at a 

 price forty times larger. 



We now come to double Daffodils — an important part of the 

 natural history of the species, for N. pseudo-narcissus is one of 

 the few British plants which produce double flowers in a per- 

 fectly wild state. I shall speak chiefly of two forms — (1) the 

 double typical wild English Daffodil, which occurs wild in 

 Devonshire, in Hampshire, in South Wales, and several other 

 parts of the country ; (2) the large garden double, commonly 

 called Telamonius plenus. I was brought up in the popular 



