340 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the Narcissi, it would take up far too much of the time and 

 patience of my hearers. 



The Polyanthus Narcissus is the Narcissus Tazetta of Lin- 

 naeus, belonging to the genus Hermionc of Haworth, of which 

 Mr. J. G. Baker (" Amaryllideae," 1888) enumerates fourteen 

 sub-species, divided into groups, according to the colours of the 

 flowers, viz. : (a) perianth white, corona yellow ; (b) perianth 

 and corona both white ; (c) perianth and corona both yellow. 



This is not the place to give botanical details about the 

 different forms which are found wild in Portugal and in the 

 islands of the Archipelago, where Miller states that they were 

 growing in his time, or in the much wider zone now considered 

 to be their native habitat, viz., from the Canary Islands to Por- 

 tugal, and on through the South of Europe to Syria, Cashmere, 

 China, and Japan. The home of the largest number of the 

 various forms appears to be in Italy and the South-east of 

 France. Before, however, I proceed to speak of the forms most 

 generally cultivated, a few notes about the introduction of this 

 flower into gardens may perhaps be welcome. 



The first Polyanthus Narcissus which was introduced into 

 cultivation dates from 1561. It was sent by Matthias de l'Obel 

 to the Netherlands from Languedoc, and is first figured in L'Obel's 

 Herbal of 1581 as the second Narcissus medio -luteus, named 

 " Donas," and is described as growing in Provence as a weed in 

 the grass. It has a white perianth with yellow cup, bearing six, 

 ten, or twelve flowers on a stalk ; Clusius, who gives the name 

 prcecox to this variety, observed it once, by exception, with six- 

 teen flowers on a stalk. 



About this same time, in the Herbals of L'Obel 

 (1581), Dalechamps (1586), and Gerarde (1597), we find 

 described and figured, under various names, (1) the above- 

 mentioned variety, considered to be the first introduced 

 N. Tazetta Lois ; (2) N. polyanthus Lois, " the milk-white 

 Daffodil," or totus albus ; and (3) "the double white Daffodil of 

 Constantinople," our double Koman variety. In the different 

 editions of Emanuel Sweert's " Florilegium " (1612 and later) 

 figures are found of eight different forms of Polyanthus Narcis- 

 sus, and in the splendid " Hortus Eystettensis " of the same 

 year (1612) twelve different Polyanthus Narcissi are finely 

 reproduced. Caspar Bauhin, in his " Pinax " (1623), gives a 



