342 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



September, sometimes in August, soon after having been taken 

 up and cleaned. In Van Kampen's times the bulb trade merely 

 consisted in selling to amateurs, and the wants of the trade were 

 very different from what they are now. At present the trade 

 requires finely formed and strongly grown bulbs, in order to have 

 a good article for dry sale ; whereas formerly the desire only was 

 to have bulbs which could give fine flowers. And this difference 

 in the aim of cultivators has occasioned certain alterations in 

 the way of treatment. The early planting and thick covering 

 with leaves during winter keeps the roots active and the plant 

 always growing, and though the part of the leaves grown under 

 the mulching remains colourless and yellow, not always changing 

 into green, it does not appear to injure the bulbs. The system 

 of taking up the bulbs of Polyanthus Narcissi every year, and 

 giving them a fresh soil the following season, was in practice 

 more than a hundred years ago, as is stated by James Justice, 

 and it is the only possible system by which to grow fine bulbs. 



In the last century Polyanthus Narcissus were classified as 

 follows :— 



(a) Perianth white, Corona white. 



(b) „ ,, „ yellow. 



(c) ,, ,, sulphur. 



(d) „ „ „ orange. 



(e) ,, yellow, ,, yellow. 

 (/) „ „ » sulphur. 



(g) „ ,i 11 orange. 



(h) Double varieties of all classes. 



The most famous growers of these flowers, as indeed of 

 other bulbous plants, in the middle of the eighteenth century, 

 were Dirk Voorhelm and Voorhelm & Van Zompel at 

 Haarlem. The last firm was succeeded by that of Voorhelm- 

 Schneevoogt ; and from a catalogue of that house of 1788 we 

 learn that they offered to the public 155 varieties in various 

 classes, sold in collections with names at 20s., 33s. 4^., and 50s. 

 per 100 bulbs, and in mixture at 12s. 6d. and 15s. per 100. The 

 highest price of any variety was Is. 8d. a bulb, at which price a 

 dozen different varieties are catalogued. In this list we find the 

 following varieties, which are still in cultivation, viz., Etoile d'Or 

 (yellow, N. bifrons), Aigle d'Or (yellow and orange), Grand 



