344 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



export trade. These countries must necessarily buy from 

 Holland the bulbs required for this new development of garden- 

 ing, and so whilst the demand for bulbs for forcing purposes is 

 perhaps somewhat less than formerly, the demand from time to 

 time for bulbs for planting becomes very important. Thus the 

 Polyanthus Narcissus still remains a valuable item in the Dutch 

 bulb trade, especially as the comparatively low prices of the 

 bulbs make it possible to purchase them for every purpose. 



Like other sorts of Daffodils, N. Tazetta may be grown in 

 glasses in water most successfully. From Philip Miller we 

 learn than this method was much practised years ago, but at 

 the present time it has to a great extent fallen out of use ; still 

 at our Haarlem bulb shows very fine collections of water-grown 

 N. Tazetta have sometimes been exhibited. 



For very early forcing the ''double Roman" and the single 

 pure white totus albus are used, which by good treatment 

 may be had in bloom at Christmas or earlier, provided that the 

 bulbs have been grown beforehand in a southern climate. 



This short review would be very incomplete if we did not 

 mention a Polyanthus Narcissus which has attracted much 

 attention lately. I mean the Chinese Narcissus called Grand 

 Emperor, introduced last winter into England for the first time, 

 and of which formerly reports came from the United States. 

 We grew specimens of this Narcissus last winter, and find that a 

 double variety is mixed up with a larger number of single ones. 

 It is a good white-perianthed Narcissus with yellow cup, but 

 not exceeding in beauty the well-known varieties, at least so far 

 as may be judged from the specimens grown, and not a plant to 

 be recommended for general cultivation. This, too, was the 

 opinion of the floral committee at the meeting of the Dutch 

 Royal Horticultural and Botanical Society at Amsterdam, where 

 we exhibited several specimens. A vote of thanks was awarded 

 for them, but they were not considered worth certificating. As 

 has been stated in the gardening papers, this Chinese Narcissus 

 is considered to be the " Flower of Good Luck," and so they are 

 generally grown in the apartments of people of all classes, so as 

 to have it in flower at the beginning of the Chinese year, in 

 February. We think this Narcissus belongs to the plants called 

 " Ssisen " by Engelbert Kaempfer (in his " Amcenitatum exoti- 

 carum," &c, fasc. v., 1712), and of which he describes two 



