164 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



way through the soil. In such cases the leaf below the yellow band may 

 be found green and healthy ; probably only a leaf or two here and there 

 will be affected, and the flowering capacity of the plant does not seem to 

 be impaired. Injury of this character always affects the outside of the 

 leaf. True yellow-stripe, on the other hand, seems in a mild case to 

 affect the interior of the leaf, and, at least so far as my observations go, 

 is never sharply defined transversely. I have for years grown several of 

 the stronger varieties of daffodil, including 1 Sir Watkin,' among roses, in 

 beds that have received annually a heavy dressing of manure in the 

 autumn, and though I have occasionally seen this local yellowing of the 

 foliage I have never noticed a trace of true " yellow-stripe " in these 

 plants. 



My own experience does not accord with the manuring theory. I 

 first noticed yellow-stripe in my garden in the spring of 1905, but the 

 attack was not serious. In 1906 I experienced the worst attack I have 

 had, 1 M. J. Berkeley ' and ' C. J. Backhouse ' being the most affected and 

 ' Sir Watkin ' suffering considerably. My worst case was a group of ' M. J. 

 Berkeley ' on a rather dry shelf in the rock garden ; every plant in the 

 group was affected, and they produced not a single flower. Not a particle 

 of manure had been near the site for years, but it was a position I consider 

 too dry for daffodils as a rule. So bad was the attack that I had intended 

 to dig up and throw away the bulbs, but to do this I should have risked 

 disturbing other plants which I valued more. I therefore gave the bed 

 two rather heavy dressings of Tonk's manure, and several waterings in 

 the course of 1906 ; and in the following spring I also treated the 

 other bulbs affected with yellow-stripe with dressings of Tonk's manure, 

 but not such heavy ones. The result, somewhat to my surprise, was 

 entirely successful. All the bulbs bloomed well in 1907, and I did not 

 notice a trace of yellow-stripe anywhere in my garden. The flowers of 

 this particular group of * M. J. Berkeley ' were specially good and lasted 

 will. I am not certain, however, that the result is to be attributed to the 

 treatment the bulbs received. 



The spring of 1906 was one in which the leaf growth was particularly 

 early and hard weather was experienced after the leaves had shot through 

 the ground. 1907, on the other hand, was with me a particularly late 

 season ; I find, in fact, that many varieties were a fortnight behind their 

 time of flowering in the previous year (190G). The year 1908 has proved 

 ail even later year than 1907, a comparison of the daffodil flowers open 

 on similar dates in the two years showing that in most cases the flowers 

 opened about a week later in 1908 than in 1907. This, though 

 unfortunate from the point of view of the exhibitors, does not seem to be 

 altogether so for the plants, for I have seen only a few cases of yellow- 

 stripo in my garden in 1908, and in those the plants are not badly 

 bed. There is this year more yellow-stripe in my garden than in 

 11HI7, but the cases are of a mild type. 



Now it seems worth notice, in^the first place, that the varieties most 

 prone to be affected with yellow-stripe are nearly all early varieties. Sir 

 Wat kin ' and ' (!. J. Backhouse ' are usually among the first of the Incom- 

 parabilia section to flower, and 1 M. J. Berkeley,' though actually flowering 

 after some of the early trumpets are in bloom, is one of the first of them 



